Teaching Mitigation through The Dawg Haus

I need to remind you no cuts until you check with me right? Mr. Burke was so instrumental and so excited about the program that when it was mentioned to him that we'd like to solicit his help was so enthusiastic about it and just joined in and jumped in with both feet. Sound of saw cutting wood. Just bring yourself around. The dog depicts the mitigation measures that keeps a stick built house, a wood framed house together as one piece and it's something we use extensively through our mitigation outreach program everybody can understand very simply from one look at it what we're trying to accomplish through our mitigation measures keeping the building one piece. FEMA came down here and they've offered us this project were assembling a basic residential type frame from the foundation to the roof so it starts off with sill, floor assembly, wall assembly right-up to the ceiling and rafters and were showing the students the proper connections so that you carry the load from the foundation all way up to the rooftop and down to the other side of the building we do some out buildings here sheds and things like that but this is more strict enforcement of building codes high winds things like that so the students are getting that experience right now. It not only added to our program but it educated their students carpentry students in what they'll be facing when they get out in the field. To train the students on the proper safety precautions needed in the field had a ten hour OSHA course which is just fantastic. Sound of saw cutting wood. I find this project here at North Quincy High School is outstanding for a couple of reasons first in terms of safety which has always been a primary concern. The FEMA people are great when they came and talked a little bit about safety. Part of that safety piece is being able to build sound structures and so I found it extremely informational personally and both professionally and I think the kids here benefited really understanding about what a sound structure really means. The whole point of the DAWG HAUS is a mitigation tool that we use to explain to a person who doesn't have building knowledge what the purpose of tying your house together what we call a continuous load path where the house is solid from the foundation over the roof ridge to the other side so its all one piece no weak links to it. I really like it because everything we've learned through out the year we've taken and now we're using to build this and everybody can see it now. Through our involvement through out the country we've strengthened building codes and made the proper adjustments so that when you build a house today most of these items are incorporated into that building process. We've formed partnerships with several companies Home Depot who's been a strong partner of ours has contributed over the years the materials that build these DAWG HAUS' all over the country. We've done projects with Lowes and Simpson Strong Tie to donate the wind clips for these projects making a strong partnership between the private sector and FEMA. Improve your property make it stronger make it better. If there's one thing I do know it's that mitigation works.