RICHBURG, S.C. — The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety is a nonprofit funded by property insurers and reinsurers to conduct scientific research on building safety.

Christina Gropp is a meteorologist at IBHS. She said the IBHS test chamber is the only facility in the world that can test full-scale homes and businesses against wind, wind-driven rain, hail and wildfire.

“We can figure out how to build our homes and businesses to better withstand all of the elements that Mother Nature can throw at it,” Gropp said.

What You Need To Know

The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety is a nonprofit funded by property insurers and reinsurers to conduct scientific research on building safety

The IBHS test chamber is the only facility in the world that can test full-scale homes and businesses against wind, wind-driven rain, hail and wildfire

You can access IBHS research to figure out how to best reinforce your home against storms and hail

One area of study at the IBHS facility is hail storms. They make their own hail stones based on scans taken in the field and shoot them at full-scale replicas of homes and businesses to see how different brands of shingles handle damage.

“We publish the results to see how impact-resistant labeled shingles stand up to hail in our laboratory, to tell you how a shingle will perform against hail, which shingles will perform better,” Gropp said.

Gropp also encourages people to get a fortified roof with button caps on nails and a sealed-roof deck that stops water from getting into your attic if your shingles are torn off.

“Insurance can financially help you recover, yet it doesn’t avoid the disruption to your life that is the process of repairing. It doesn’t replace your family heirlooms, your child’s baby blanket, the family photos that can get wet when water enters your home," Gropp said.

You can find steps to prepare for severe weather in the IBHS Thunderstorm Ready Guide.