High Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) Certified Structures

In just the blink of an eye, you could lose everything: your home, your precious possessions and even your life. Every year, dangerous hurricanes wallop areas along the coast dumping massive amounts of rain on land and destroying buildings with winds well over 100 mph in just a matter of hours.

SteelMaster’s High Velocity Hurricane Zone Certified buildings are engineered to the highest standards and are able to withstand the strongest winds.

One of our structures was tested in strict accordance to FEMA 320/361 and ICC-500. Testers hurled a 15 pound wood 2”x 4” at one of our steel walls at 100 mph, similar to what would happen to debris during a powerful storm. The building sustained minimal damage.

SteelMaster buildings have also survived real-life tests.

In 2004, Hurricane Charley slammed the West Coast of Florida as a category 4 storm which cost the state over $13 billion in damages and killed 10 people. While other buildings in the area were destroyed by the 145 mph winds of this massive storm, several SteelMaster Buildings were still standing.

“Our SteelMaster made it through Charley with flying colors,” said Scott Rambo, a Punta Gorda resident and SteelMaster customer. “Our building made it through a category 4 hurricane without even a wrinkle in the panels.”

Another customer who bought a building for a woodworking shop found another use for their SteelMaster Structure—a hurricane shelter.

“My husband, my daughter, my granddaughter and myself weathered Hurricane Charley in our SteelMaster building that my husband uses as a woodworking shop in our back yard,’’ said Kissimmee Florida resident Donna Clark. “We could feel the wind on the building but that was it. We are thankful for the SteelMaster strength and will do the same thing in the next hurricane.”

Not only are our buildings ideal to protect people and property during the storm, they also serve as temporary housing structures or storage for relief supplies to assist those affected by the storms.

We have the ability to ship buildings anywhere around the world to help with any disaster relief efforts.

We have partnered with organizations including USAID, UNOPS, U.S. Commercial Service, Internal Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), CSS Alliance and World Vision.