This utterly baffles me, given that so much of the United States is at risk for high winds. The entire eastern seaboard north to New York City and all of the southeastern states risk hurricanes; the entire midwest experiences severe thunderstorms and strong tornadoes. Admittedly there would have to be some design differences between a house in Florida and a house in Iowa (flat roofs aren’t a good idea in snow country, and basements don’t work well in areas with a high water table), but you’d still think that those national suburban architects could draw up sets of standardized plans for these large geographic areas (midwest, southeast, northeastern seaboard) which would better suit the local climates than the “generic suburban house” ones they sell now.
The problem with most of these homes are destroyed is fraud, not incorrect design or cheap owners. Many of the homes destroyed in Hurricane Andrew should have surived if built as designed. When going through the wreckage, inspectors found signs of shoddy work and fraud. Many homes fell apart because the roof sheathing was attached by a single nail or two since most nails had missed the truss. Once the wind got in, the house was destroyed. The inspectors, who should have caught this, were rushed and overworked, sometimes even paid off, and the work went through the cracks. Blaiming this on people looking at only price misses most of the real problem.
That prompts me to ask: How has Puerto Rico fared through this hurricane season? How much damage have you sustained? For some reason I haven’t seen that mentioned on any of the news networks. Perhaps because, although you are U.S. citizens, your Commonwealth has no votes in Congress or the Electoral College.
Dodged Frances comfortably, got a direct hit from Jeanne on the 15th. Two direct, six indirect deaths. Flooding and landslides. Few thousand people displaced during the emergency, a couple of hundred still to this date. The ENTIRE power grid shut down (it’s generating controversy, apparently PREPA overreacted and actually powered down the generators), leaving all the island w/o power for over 24 hrs after storm, took until the 20th to go back to 75% power, today there are still pockets w/o power and with closed roads. Main losses to power and road infrastructure, to crops on the field (coffee harvest was just about to start ), and loss-of-business due to the power shutdown. FEMA has already declared disaster areas in 54 of 78 municipalities, may go to all 78 today.
I will grant that the owners at most can only be blamed of trusting that the builders and inspectors were giving them a good deal, and of nonculpable ignorance of what is required. Still, fraud and shoddy building (and fraudulent and shoddy inspection) are still a result of a budgetary desision to build much, fast, and cheap: On the part of builders and developers wanting to place the houses on the market fast and cheap and with a higher profit margin; and on the part of government, by subordinating safety enforcement to maximizing the property-tax base.
[QUOTE=Carnac the Magnificent!]
How thick is the plywood? Is 1/2 inch thick enough?
[quote]
That would be the minimum, if only for ease of management. Basically what you want is to reduce the instances the window/door getting breached by minor flying debris or panes beign dislodged by the wind, thus allowing wind and rain to get into the inside of the structure and doing their damage there. Of course, a 2x4 travelling in 130mph wind is going to break thru, but you’re hoping it will become lodged in the plywood and thus plug its own hole
Provided the window assembly itself doesn’t get sucked out/blown in off the hole in the wall. We land back in the construction-practices area.
My mother and stepfather recently bought a new house in Fort Myers, Florida (they’re snowbirds). It was completed in May and it came equipped with hurricane shutters.
If I buy a home and I’m told it passes inspection, I have to assume it was built to code. Not being experts, people purchasing homes rely on the inspections being valid. I seriously doubt any savings from shoddy work was passed on to the home buyers.
The builders and developers are at fault here. They should have been brought up on criminal charges. I’ve not heard of one case where criminal charges were filed. Most of the times in these instances, the companies declare bankruptcy and move on. Something should also be done about this. You commit fraud on homeowners, you have to make good on it, no bankruptcy escape allowed.
Habitat for Humanity construction manager here.
I’ve met some construction staff from the Jaxsonville and Jaxsonville Beaches affiliates. The inspectors they deal with are real serious about nailing patterns for plywood sheeting (roofs and walls), hurricance clips, (to keep those pesky roofs on), and through bolts to attach the sills to the foundation. Hopefully that’s a sign that the industry has improved and the inspectors are taking their jobs seriously.
On the other hand, in some states code allows 1/2 DOW insulation board as exterior sheeting. That’s right, 1/2" of extruded polystyrene as your protection from the outside world. shudder. A house you could break into with a razor knife.
To me, this is like watching five minutes of coverage on the weather channel and then asking why all Floridians live in mobile homes, aka tornado cans.
The answer is: those of us who can afford a well-made house, live in them. Those of us who can only afford to live in a tornado can, evacuate.
You claim you have never lived in a house that was in danger of having the roof blown off by a hurricane. Has your house been through a Cat. 4 yet?
I think the more important question to ask is, Why are all the women on the Weather Channel pregnant? Poonther has a theory on this: It’s Jim Cantore. He’s so macho and manly that just standing outside in a hurricane can disseminate his sperm so that all fertile women within 500 miles of his manliness instantly become impregnated.
You don’t see a lot of hurricane shutters there in Tampa because most of Hillsborough county is not in the “Wind-Borne Debris Region”. Here is a map, if you are interested – the WBDR is west of the thick red line:
I fell in love with those when I was visiting a friend in Germany this past spring, enough that if mrAru ever gets aound to building me the home I want, I will have to import them for my windows=) Of course I also like the toilet that was in the flat, and no it wasnt the kind with the shelf :dubious:
The roll down variety can be significant in cost. One person told me they run about $1000 per window to have installed on a home after it’s built. It’s cheaper in the construction phase but still expensive. I can’t afford them so I use 1/2" plywood bolted to my home.
There is a story from Hurricane Andrew of a home onwer who spend $13,000 on metal shutters only to have them punctured and then lose his home(wish I could find the link). Unless they are solid metal, it get’s difficult to stop objects being propelled at 150+ mph. At that point, it probably won’t matter much because other weak spots in the home, such as the garage doors and entrance doors will start to give way. Mother Nature can be a real bitch sometimes.
What gets me is when I see new home construction where it’s the home owner doing the construction(not a developer) and they are building a wood frame home. If I build a home, it’s going to be reinforced concrete. The additional cost can be spread out over 30 years while I sleep better during hurricane season.
If Mighty’s home is anywhere like mine, of the PR/DR middle-class-and-above-level reinforced-concrete construction, a Cat-4 or Cat-5 storm will first blow out a weak point in a window or doorframe and gut the inside, and a Cat-5 likely knock down a non-load-bearing wall or two, but the roof stays on.
Middle class and above only? I would say that even people living in many of the public housings in Puerto Rico live in more hurricane-resistant buildings than middle class or higher people in places of Florida (or Louisiana, for that matter). Of course, it is not really a house, but apartment complexes. They’re still more resistant than some of the townhouses that I saw/see in both Gainesville and Baton Rouge.
Regarding missing electricity: I remember that after Hortense, we got power back almost immediately. Of course, it almost immediately went away, and was in that on/off situation for a couple of weeks. I prefer to wait a while and then get stable power back (not that it has happened in this case, but I like it that way).
Mighty Girl: Dad calls the Florida, Louisiana houses casas tres cerditos, modelo 2 (Three Lil Pigs houses, model II)
), and loss-of-business due to the power shutdown. FEMA has already declared disaster areas in 54 of 78 municipalities, may go to all 78 today.