The Pocket PC-based PPT 2700 series, for instance, can withstand multiple drops from a height of four feet to a concrete floor, and it is sealed against rain and dust.

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It was for Terry Horn, whose home in Broad Channel, an island community in Queens, was flooded with 51 inches of water on its first floor as his son scrambled upstairs with the family's dogs at the height of the storm.

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The screen stops well above the sidewalk, revealing V-shaped concrete supports and a glass-walled ground floor with views of a double-height sunken gallery inside.

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And for Ms. Vanacore's 29-year-old son, Michael, it happened at the height of the storm, as he watched a distant electrical transformer explode into flames from his neighbor's fifth-floor apartment.

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Its full 120m height is still under construction (its 19th floor is open to visitors), but thanks to its 27 floors of luxury apartments and use of sustainable architecture, it just might be the most-talked about new building in Rome since the MAXXI, built by starchitect Zaha Hadid and opened in 2010.

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