Epcot attraction to teach hurricane safety

A new attraction set to debut this August at Epcot's Innoventions aims to educate guests on the dangers of hurricanes, and how to protect their homes from the intense, destructive storms. StormStruck: The Tale of Two Homes will be an immersive 3D digital surround sound experience, telling a tale of home protection through the stories of two homeowners who had very different experiences with Hurricane Charley in 2004.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Chris Webb's home on Gulfview Road in Punta Gorda was unscathed when Charley howled ashore, but across the street, the Category 4 winds ripped the roof off neighbor Jim Minardi's 43-year-old house and gutted the interior. "A total loss," the retired college administrator said Friday. "We scraped it off the lot and started over." The difference was in how each house was built, and how well the component parts — the roof, the walls, and the floors — were tied to one another.

According to a Disney description, exhibit visitors will don 3-D glasses and watch as their "safe house" is lashed by a hurricane and begins to break up around them. As the eye of the storm hovers overhead, they'll race against the clock to decide how to rebuild the home more safely. "What if we could put you in the middle of a storm and make it your job to figure out how to make a safer house?" said Walt Disney Imagineer Joe Tankersley during a presentation Friday at the Governor's Hurricane Conference. "All the information about mitigation techniques . . . weren't really as important as getting people to understand, 'Hey, you can do something. It's in your hands. You can make your home safer.' " Afterward their encounter, guests can visit a "Weather Mitigation Research Lab" where they can learn building techniques that will make their homes more weather-resistant.