ORLANDO, Fla. – University of Central Florida researchers have developed a new tool for Florida homeowners to help them determine how vulnerable their homes are to hurricanes.
“The results that we’re hoping to get is to make people more aware of the hazards that their homes face,” UCF Associate Professor Christopher Emrich said.
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HazardAware, a free website and app produced by UCF, can help determine not just the risks a home can face from storms, but also how much those hazards may cost.
“You can go to a regular real estate site and find out how much your insurance will be, how much your house payment will be,” he said. “There’s no place you can go to find out how much will hazards cost me.”
All people have to do is type in their address, and a score is generated to show just how resilient or disaster-ready their home is. The app then offers tips to better protect their home.
“We want to make people more resilient,” Emrich said. “Part of making people more resilient is democratizing data and making data freely available.”
According to Emrich, HazardAware provides information for more than 13 million addresses across 196 counties along the Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.
For more information on HazardAware or to use it for yourself, go to the app’s website here.