"Extreme Weather Batters The Insurance Industry"

"In Chester County, South Carolina, off a dirt road in the middle of a field, insurance companies are literally unleashing a storm.

To simulate hurricane-like conditions, an industry group has built a wind tunnel big enough to accommodate nine large residential homes. Some 105 fans deliver gusts of 175 miles per hour, destroying dwellings built precisely for this purpose.

The goal is to construct homes across the country that can withstand the worst Mother Nature has to offer, which lately has been quite a lot -- not to mention tough if not impossible for insurers to predict."

Ben Berkowitz Reports for Reuters February 11, 2011.

SEE ALSO:

"UN General Assembly: Invest in Natural Disaster Risk Reduction" (ENS)

Source: Reuters, 02/11/2011