Home Technology to Help Mitigate Natural Disasters

Mankind has yet to develop technology to prevent "acts of God"—but it has become pretty adept at identifying potential disasters before they become full-fledged out-of-control scenarios.

Below, a few clever devices to help keep your home intact, regardless of what the world throws at it.

Nest Protect

A smart and friendly smoke detector—what a novel idea! Unlike your standard smoke detector, which only issues forth in chirps and bleats and can’t distinguish between burning toast and burning dish towels, the Nest Protect comes equipped with a speaker, a human voice and the intelligence to distinguish when homeowners need a head’s up or a five-alarm alert. Better still, you can control the Nest Protect from your phone, allowing you to turn off the alarm quickly and easily—just because you ruined the pancakes doesn’t mean you should ruin your ear drums. The smart sensor will also call out carbon monoxide leaks, send notifications to your phone, and, if you have several spread throughout your home, identify which room is experiencing a smoke/fire/air quality issue.

The Nest Protect is available for $119 (Single), $329 (3 Pack), or $614 (6 Pack).

Fibaro Flood Sensor

Whether caused by burst dam or burst pipe, flooding can do significant damage to homes (and possessions) if not caught early. The Fibaro Flood Sensor is as clever as it is compact. Capable of being placed virtually anywhere (and compatible with probes that give it even greater range) the Fibaro Flood Sensor will not only identify accumulating moisture and notify you immediately, but if your home is equipped with electrovalves, it will automatically shut off the offending pipe source, thus preventing further flood damage. The Fibaro’s connected nature enables a few other nifty features, too—like automatically shutting smart windows or doors at the first drop of rain, or starting up the heated driveway when it detects snow. All this and the Fibaro Flood Sensor comes in sleek and minimal design you won’t mind having spread throughout your home.

The Fibaro Flood Sensor is available for $59 or $69 (Apple Homekit compatible).

tornadoAlert

While perhaps not as ubiquitous as fire or flood, tornadoes are no less terrifying or destructive for home homeowners. And more than any of these more regularly occurring "acts of God," tornadoes require significant advanced warning to protect people and property. Billing itself as "the world’s first personal tornado detector," tornadoAlert is capable of identifying the extreme weather patterns associated with tornadoes up to 30 minutes out from impact and alert owners via a 90 decibel alarm call and strobing warning light. The device is also able to illustrate where the weather pattern is in relation to a user’s location via a live proximity for better emergency preparation and possible evacuation.

The tornadoAlert is available for $84.

Philips Hue Light Bulbs

While we typically discuss Philips Hue Bulbs in relation to lighting design or simple smart functionality, they can add an extra "pop" to disaster preparedness. Because of their Wi-Fi-connectivity and ability to easily pair with a variety of other smart home devices (via IFTTT, Homekit, etc.), homeowners can change the lighting of their entire estate, depending on the emergency (red for fire, blue for flood, pulse for tornado), and immediately alert the household to the issue—regardless of time of day or location in the home. When speed is of the essence, nothing travels faster than the speed of light.

ThePhilips Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit is available for $199.