Using wind and storm surge data to make damage predictions in the high school classroom

This presentation will describe a secondary classroom activity using wind and storm surge data from Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina. In this activity students will graph and model the wind and storm surge data from different collection points from the two storms to determine if catastrophic damage was first caused by wind or if it was caused by storm surge. This type of information is important because some home owners claim that they suffered catastrophic wind damage before any storm surge occurred on their property. These home owners are having difficulty settling damage claims with insurance companies who are claiming that the majority of the damage to their homes was due to water and not wind. Students will graph the data from different locales and try to determine from the data whether wind or water were the primary cause of catastrophic property damage for a particular location.