Hurricanes are one of the major natural disasters experienced in the United States because of the large number of coastal communities on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Large cities and small neighborhoods alike feel the effects of high winds, torrential rainfalls and large storm surges. On average, three to six hurricanes hit the US per year with 2 of them being considering major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or higher. These storms are volatile weather systems that incur millions of dollars of property damage as well as risking thousands of lives when they make landfall.
Amphibious houses have the potential to prevent large amounts of property damage during hurricanes by having homes float upwards with the storm surge water levels. This would allow residents to minimize damages to their homes and improve their livelihood.
Applications of Amphibious Houses in Floods
Credits: Google Images
Floods are the most common and costly type of natural disaster in the US and are the result of a multitude of naturally occurring and human induced factors. Generally they are defined as the accumulation of too much water in too little time in a specific area. The types of floods include regional floods, flash floods, ice-jam floods, storm-surge floods, dam- and levee-failure floods, and debris, landslide, and mudflow floods. These events occur all throughout the US in the majority of states. One specific flood example that was considered for this project was the Great Mississippi River Basin Flood of 1993 that affected 9 different states and caused $20 billion in damages.