blow

On a sunny afternoon in April, I stood indoors in front of the only machine in the world that can create a Category 5 hurricane in a lab. Housed in a large building at the University of Miami on Virginia Key, it consists of a swimming-pool-sized tank, a wave generator, and a loud jet engine that pipes in hurricane-strength winds. The tank is an essential tool for research into how coral can lessen hurricanes’ damage to coastal communities. I was here to see how it works.…