113 Calhoun Street Foundation board member Rick Devoe joined Barrett Lawrimore, chairman of Charleston County Council, FEMA director of mitigation Mike Armstrong and other government officials and business executives in signing to pledge their commitment to the program. After the ceremony, officials and community leaders accompanied DeVoe and 113 Calhoun Street Foundation technical committee chair Bob Bacon on a tour of the 113 Calhoun Street Center for Sustainable Living, currently under construction. After completion, it will function as a demonstration site. Professor Tim Reinhold and graduate student Brian Pietras , researchers from Clemson University's civil engineering department, demonstrated several retrofit techniques with hands-on displays. Officials were asked to pull screws and nails from wooden blocks with a special device that measured the strength of each attachment.
Screws can add up to five times the resistance to uplift forces caused by wind.