As Gustav and Hanna barreled toward the Southeastern United States and hundreds of thousands of residents evacuated coastal areas, teams of researchers raced into the paths of the storms.

They came from Florida International University, the University of Florida and Clemson University and fanned out throughout the storm regions to set up mobile towers to collect data on wind speeds and pressure as the storm passed. They also attached sensors to homes near the towers to gauge the storm's impact on actual structures. The FIU team also collected data on storm surges as Gustav hit the Louisiana coast.

Millions of dollars are being poured into wind mitigation research. In the past year, FIU alone has attracted more than $18 million for research. Among its funding, UF counts a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and Florida's Department of Community Affairs. A research group backed by the insurance industry is planning a $25 million-plus research and testing center.

These engineers and scientists have left six-inch models inside small wind tunnels behind. Give them full-scale tiles, nails, roofs, windows and walls to pummel. Increasingly, researchers want to see how a whole house responds a massive storm.

The research needs "to take a more holistic approach, " says Forrest Masters, one of the wind engineers leading the wind mitigation research at UF. "We need to see how the different pieces of the puzzle work together."

FIU is using $3.5 million in state and private grants to expand its monster "Wall of Wind" project. The school is building an 8,000-square-foot facility on its engineering campus to house the hurricane simulator, which eventually will be an array of 12 massive electric industrial fans that can belt out monster winds of more than 150 mph and driving rain. The simulator will bombard a two-story house that will sit on a turntable inside. That way, wind and rain can come down on the structure from various angles. High-speed video cameras will capture the destruction meted out by the wind and water.

With the video and a controlled environment, "we're going to be able to see how things actually break, " says Stephen Leatherman, who leads FIU's International Hurricane Research Center.

He would like to see this facility elevate hurricane research and consumer awareness as the Institute for Highway Safety did for auto safety. Think test dummies strapped into speeding cars as they crash into concrete walls.

"The first part of the research is learning to build homes better, " Leatherman says. "The second part is showing the public why it's better."

What's the goal of all this research?

"We can point people to those materials and building practices that can reduce their losses, " says Julie Rochman, president and executive director of the Institute for Business and Home Safety, a research facility in Tampa that's primarily funded by insurers and reinsurers.

Studies are showing mitigation can play a significant role in reducing losses -- 40 percent to 60 percent according to one study released this year by the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Center at the Wharton School of Business.

Let's face it, Florida is a magnet for hurricanes, and South Florida gets most of the storms that make landfall. Of the 26 major storms -- Category 3 or higher -- that have hit Florida in the past 100 years, 22 have hit South Florida.

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