Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Large Bend area as a Class 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds. To date, 33 fatalities have been reported. And whereas there was widespread flooding, together with the closely populated cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg, Tampa Basic Hospital, located proper alongside Tampa Bay, has managed to remain dry.
That is resulting from a 5- to 10-foot excessive barrier often called an AquaFence, which is going viral on a number of platforms due to the way it appears to have protected the area’s solely Degree 1 trauma heart.
As #HurricaneHelene continues, the AquaFence at TGH stands agency. The water-impermeable barrier is designed to resist storm surge as much as 15 ft. It has labored by way of a number of rain occasions to forestall storm waters from impacting hospital operations. #WeAreTGH #StormWatch pic.twitter.com/papsd6oPg2
— Tampa Basic Hospital (@TGHCares) September 27, 2024
AquaFence was based in 1999 and has workplaces in Norway and New Jersey. In keeping with the firm’s web site, its techniques are “defending greater than $30 billion value of actual property in the US alone,” together with all the things from lodges to fuel stations to a Shake Shack.
The product is designed to be put in rapidly and (pretty) simply. In 2023, AquaFence USA President Thomas Briedis instructed native outlet, WTSP Tampa 10, that 100 ft of AquaFence might be put in in half-hour.
“They arrive folded collectively, form of like a laptop computer,” he mentioned. “You’re taking them out of the crate, put them down they usually fold open.”
Briedis additionally mentioned that the corporate is engaged on a line of residential AquaFences, which might value round $20,000. The obstacles are designed to guard in a Class 5 hurricane.
“We’re very assured within the system. It was been totally examined,” Briedis instructed the outlet.