Entries Tagged 'Hurricane Tips' ↓

West Palm Beach, FL — After any good sized storm, like our recent brush with Tropical Storm Ernesto, people in Hurricane effected areas become re-energized about improving their Hurricane preparedness. In itself, this is wonderful. People purchase hurricane shutters for the first time, install garage door braces, write hurricane plans, and some even buy high-end products like impact windows. All these things improve your chances of weathering the next storm with less risk to life and property. Unfortunately, the people who make their living by stealing people’s money know this all too well, and they step-up their efforts to separate you from your hard earned dollars in the weeks following a storm.

One of the main reasons we started our community at aBigwind is to call these scammers to your attention. The more we know about who these scam artists are, and what tricks they employ, the more likely we are to avoid them. Recently, we came across an online tool to perform background checks on companies and individuals that can help you with this.

It’s called PeopleFinders. PeopleFinders allows you to run an extensive range of background checks that will flesh out a lot of information about any potential contractor that you’re considering for a job.

Included in their options are a criminal background screening, company background check, and individual background check. Clicking on the Criminal Check link will take you to a page that shows the databases that will be searched, along with the kinds of criminal activity that PeopleFinders will search for. These include things like: Felonies and Misdemeanors, Offenses & Charges, Court, Conviction date and Risk Level.

According to PeopleFinders.com CEO Rob Miller

“Hurricane Katrina showed the world that terrible situations can still be made worse by greedy and uncaring individuals. “Scam artists love to prey on victims of a disaster because they know they are desperate to rebuild their lives and their homes,” Miller states.”

Although PeopleFinders stands to benefit from our paranoia about being defrauded, we think their tool, and our general paranoia about being scammed, are well justified. You don’t have to look very hard in places like Biloxi, New Orleans, or pretty much any town in Florida to see how common this problem is - news reports are filled with sad tales about Hurricane protection scams.

PeopleFinders offers a number of tips to Hurricane Protection consumers to use in avoiding contractor scams which we include here to add to your Hurricane self defense plan.

1. Online People Searches: You would be surprised at the wealth of information that an online people search web site like PeopleFinders.com can provide regarding a potential contractor or company that wants to repair your home. For individual contractors, a background check can tell you if a contractor is licensed, has a criminal record and even how long he or she has been working in your area. For companies, a business search can tell you if a business is legitimate by providing such information as which professional licenses a business holds, its location, who owns it and even what their office looks like.

2. References: Don’t take a contractor’s word for his or her quality of work. Just like hiring a potential employee, it is always a good practice to check references. If possible, make sure to visit these properties to see their work first hand. Also, you can always contact your local Better Business Bureau to obtain more information on a particular contractor or business.

3. Pro-actively Choose your Contractor: Avoid door to door contractors. To make sure that you are only hiring legitimate contractors, only select those from lists provided from state housing and contracting agencies.

4. Never Pay Cash: Paying for home improvements with cash should be avoided because cash is the toughest form of money to recover should there be a problem with your contractor. In addition, never pay for a job completely up front. Any payments should be made only after you have had a chance to review a contractor’s qualifications.

5. Comparison Shop: Make sure to get multiple bids on your repairs before having any work done. Price is not the only aspect of a bid to be considered when reviewing bids as business history, insurance coverage and proper licenses to work in your area or home must also be taken into consideration.”

I know that I said this yesterday…but what a difference a few hours can make. That seems ridiculous coming from a South Florida native that went through Hurricane Andrew, but it never ceases to amaze me how much the ‘cone’ and intensity predictions vary; virtually hour to hour in this case. Yesterday I was writing my friends in Tampa saying - get ready for a possible cat 3; and today Ernesto is a Tropical Storm and is coming for us in South Florida as a cat 1 (so far). See the map on the sidebar for the latest forecast info.

For those of us in Hurricane Country - we would really be sever best living by what The Palm Beach Post’s Storm Blogger, Bob King, refers to in his post today as McLean’s Law (for Olivia McLean - head of emergency management for the South Florida Water District):

1. If you’re in the cone, assume the storm is going to run right over you.
2. Assume the storm will be one category greater than the hurricane center is predicting.

By those standards, almost everyone in Florida should be preparing to be struck by a Category 2 hurricane.

This is EXCELLENT advice and it has inspired me to come up with “A Big Wind’s” Rule: All Hurricane information is uncertain so prepare today. Don’t Get Caught in a Hurricane With Your Guard Down.

The truth is that Hurricane predictions and forecasts are uncertain, especially when it comes to predicting the intensity. So now we are getting ready. There is no need to panic - but you should be getting ready too.

Our blog is full of information, but Mr. Wind will put up a post shortly with some other “getting ready” tips as well. If you don’t have hurricane shutters, then you will be faced with plywood. While the Hurricane force winds won’t be here until Wednesday - the Tropical Storm force winds will get here tonight or tomorrow. So the shutter installation needs to happen today. A Big Wind has plenty of hurricane shutter information on the site - just use the search bar at the top of every page to do a search for shutters - or just click here.

Nasa even cancelled the shuttled launch. Now it is time for you to batten down the hatches as well.

Due to the increasing threat of Hurricane Ernesto - visitors (tourists) of the Florida Keys were ordered to leave the island chain starting at 1 p.m. today, Sunday - August 27th. Other important evacuations:

All tourists that are in the Keys must leave and anyone with immediate plans to travel to the Keys should postpone their trip. Additionally, all travel trailers and recreational vehicles (RVs) are ordered to leave the Keys immediately.

If you are a tourist - you need to heed the order and get out early as the Keys are right under the South Florida mainland, which will soon be under a similar watch or warning, meaning that hotels tend to book up quickly. Hurricane supplies will be increasingly scarce and gas lines long. The last thing that you want to do is find yourself spending your vacation at a hurricane shelter. If you have never traveled to the Keys, you may not realize that the Keys are a very narrow island chain (i.e. surrounded by water). It is unsafe to be here when a Hurricane is threatening. Standard protocol is that if there is a Hurricane Watch posted, all tourists are ordered to leave the islands. This evacuation order may come before a watch is even issued as there is only one main road into and out of the Keys.

There will be a steady stream of vehicles making their way up U.S. 1 to safer ground. Key West International Airport should remain operational through Monday night, according to Monroe County Airports Director Peter Horton. You may want to consider getting a Hurricane Friend - read about that here.

I am surprised how little information about the evacuation on the web there is for tourists. I visited the Keysnews.com, Key West City web site, the Monroe County Web site, and finally hit the jackpot at the Keys Tourist web site. I am not sure how many tourists would have thought to go to the Tourist site - but kudos to them for providing the information.

Here are particularly useful FAQs about a Keys evacuation from the Keys Tourist Website:

I’m in the Keys and there’s an order to evacuate, but I don’t have a car. How do I leave?

There are several options. Check with the front office or hotel concierge to see if there are any rental cars or flights available from Key West International Airport. A number of ground transportation shuttle services operate between Key West and Miami and Fort Lauderdale International Airports. Typically, Greyhound Bus Lines adds extra buses to accommodate vacationers leaving the Keys. The TDC surveys transportation companies to determine what is available, and passes that information via advisories to accommodations facilities and posts it on the TDC Web site.

Where can I go?

Local tourism officials realize that an unexpected vacation interruption is a hardship on visitors. The tourism council works cooperatively with other Florida destinations that typically set up special hotlines to provide hotel availability and rates. These numbers are published in advisories sent to properties and posted on the Keys Web site.

What about lodging refunds?

Each property has its own refund policy. The Lodging Association of the Florida Keys & Key West urges their members to provide refunds of unused nights as soon as local officials issue a visitor evacuation order. The majority of Keys properties subscribe to this standard. Prior to making a reservation, it is prudent for the visitor to have a clear understanding about a particular lodging facility’s refund policies in the event of a hurricane threat. Several travel insurance plans are available from companies that can provide additional fiscal protection. Expedia.com has a “Hassle-Free Hurricane Promise” for travelers that book vacations on their web site. If the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane watch or warning for any destination, Expedia will waive associated Expedia.com cancellation fees; advocate with their travel partners to waive their fees and help find new travel options.

How come during an evacuation, visitors are asked to leave while residents can stay? And why do tourists have to leave so early?

Visitors are asked to leave the Keys during any category storm while residents are mandated to leave during a severe hurricane of Category 3 or higher. The early egress of visitors is for their own safety. Officials want visitors to have plenty of time to get out of harm’s way as well as to not impede the movement of Keys citizens in the event of a resident evacuation. Also, because of the Keys’ unique nature as a chain of islands, with one highway in and out, the region requires more time to evacuate than other coastal areas. And emergency officials must react earlier to avoid impacting possible evacuations of other South Florida communities.

In the event a hurricane does impact the Keys, there is high likelihood of power outages, temporarily impassable roads and airports that will be temporarily out of service. Most, if not all, hotels will be closed and visitor facilities will not be operational. At that point, the top priority for government and business owners is to restore facilities so the Keys can once again provide full-service vacation opportunities.

Historically, a hurricane only impacts the Keys once in four to five evacuations because the forecast error track rate (the projected path of the storm) is so great at the time of the evacuation order. As hurricane forecasting advances, that rate should decrease and hopefully diminish unnecessary evacuations.

When can we resume our vacation to the Keys?

This varies and depends on several factors. If only a visitor evacuation has been ordered and the storm misses the Keys, visitors often can begin returning the day after the threat passes. If both visitor and resident evacuation orders have been issued, and the storm misses the Keys, it might take a few days for visitor facilities to reopen. If the storm impacts the Keys, visitors can begin returning after electricity, road access and other infrastructure are restored. Check the Florida Keys Web site at www.fla-keys.com for the latest information concerning the status of the Keys as well as the lodging facility where you wish to stay.

Additional Resources:

Created by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, a special hurricane visitor safety PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) brochure is available for visitors. The brochure educates and provides information resources for Keys visitors in the event the region is threatened by a tropical cyclone during their stay. It is available by clicking on the “Prepared in Paradise” picture at the top of the page at www.fla-keys.com/hurricaneseason.htm.

Keys Visitor Assistance Line: 1-800-771-KEYS

Monroe County Situation Report: www.monroecounty-fl.gov

National Hurricane Center Web site: www.nhc.noaa.gov

Key West Weather: weather.gov/keywest

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office: www.keysso.net

If you are a local and have any other tips - please leave us a comment below.

Sophisticated, professionally installed home generators like these aren’t the problem.

As Hurricane’s come and go they leave in their wake destruction, death and…power outages. For any of us who have weathered a hurricane we’ve discovered that much of the inconvenience in the ensuing hours and days after the hurricane is due to our loss of power.

Generators like this one pump out significant amounts of deadly carbon monoxide.

It gets us thinking back to days when people survived year around without central electricity and makes us profoundly happy that we can normally conjure up a light bulb, A/C unit or the fridge without a thought.Generators have become increasingly popular with the greater incidence of hurricanes and super duty versions that run

on natural gas are now lusted after by hurricane country residents. For those of us on a budget, the simple Honda home generator from Home Depot is a little more within reach.

You’ve likely heard that generators create deadly carbon monoxide that kill people and yet there are reports every year about people dying from CO poisoning. Sure, some die because they’ve failed to follow common sense BUT did you know that people have died from CO poisoning from generators placed OUTSIDE their home? Generators can generate as much as 6-times the CO of an idling car and when these hogs are spewing their deadly carbon monoxide in close proximity to your home’s windows or a/c unit those fumes can find their way into your home. According to Popular Mechanics and a study conducted by the CDC:

“During hurricanes, however, many people move their generators into areas protected from wind and rain that they assume are well ventilated. A CDC report traced several poisonings to generators placed outside, but near windows or air conditioners.”

Read the full article from Popular Mechanics called Taking CO Seriously. And while you’re at it read more about how to protect yourself in this related story titled In the wake of the storm.
What else can you do? How about making the small additional investment of a CO alarm. You can pick one up for around $30. CO Alarms are available from many hardware stores and big box retailers like Home Depot, Target and many more. Since CO poisoning can come from many sources the warning they provide makes them a great safety device and value.

CO Alarms like this one can be had for as little as $30.

Price-gouging during Hurricane season is a reality that we all have to deal with. You might be a victim. Want to do something about it?

Report price gouging!

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is reminding residents of price-gouging laws. Learn more about the Florida price gouging law here.
Call 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352) or you can File a complaint online

Here are some other state resources where you can file a consumer complaint:

Mississippi Consumer Protection Division of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office Telephone (601) 359-4230

Louisiana Consumer Protection Section Office of the Attorney General Telephone (225) 326-6000 http://www.ag.state.la.us/

Texas Consumer Protection/Lubbock Regional office Office of the Attorney General Telephone (806) 747-5238 http://www.oag.state.tx.us

Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs Telephone (404) 651-8600 http://www2.state.ga.us/gaoca

North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services Telephone (919) 733-3313 http://www.agr.state.nc.us/standard/

South Carolina State offices SC Dept. of Consumer Affairs Telephone (800) 922-1594 http://www.state.sc.us/consumer

Alabama State Attorney General 1 (800)-392-5658 main web site http://www.ago.state.al.us/

Can’t find your state listed here? You can find good general consumer protection information on this nationwide online resource or by going directly to this page where you can select your state and then search for state consumer protection resources.

In our last article on installing plywood Hurricane shutters we highlighted the APA guide and that we liked the fact that it mentions how to install plywood shutters over multiple kinds of housing materials such as stucco, wood, concrete, or something else. The material of your home of business structure that surrounds your window and door openings will dictate what kinds of fastening devices you’ll use to install your plywood Hurricane Shutters. As I mentioned in my article I liked the APA guide but also found it a bit complex as a layperson.

This may seem like a ho-hum subject but we can assure you that when it comes to protecting your home from Hurricane force winds that it isn’t. Most every article you’ll read on installing plywood Hurricane shutters will make the point that your protection is only as good as the weakest link in your installation. Is the wood around your windows rotten? You can sink the perfect fastener into that wood but the chances of it holding are going to be compromised by the rotten wood. In fact, it’s common for improperly installed plywood to become a dreaded large missile as a Hurricane’s big winds tear the plywood from homes and send them hurtling through your neighborhood. The problem could easily be the kind of fasteners you use since there are such a dizzying array of choices. Don’t let this be you.

I came across an article published by the St. Petersburg Times titled Get the proper hardware for plywood protection. The article is easy to read and is packed with useful information on different types of screws, bolts, anchors and nails. A few minutes spent reading the article should help make that trip to Home Depot a lot less confusing and your plywood Hurricane shutters a lot more attached to your home. Don’t forget to use the right number of fasteners as well. In an article published by Hurricane Protection Magazine they wrote:

“After the storm, several members of the IHPA looked at plywood applications that both stayed in place and some that had failed and found that nearly all plywood installations were attached with the incorrect number of fasteners. In addition to the inadequate fasteners the thickness of the plywood was insufficient to stop a large wind-borne missile.”

Here’s a great page showing what a lot of the fasteners actually look like.

I was looking around the Internet today and doing more research on plywood Hurricane shutters. I ran across an extensive and relatively intricate set of instructions at The Engineered Wood Association (APA) on how to install plywood Hurricane shutters.

After reading through their detailed instructions (download a copy here) I was having memories of The Night Before Christmas. No, not the book, the actual night before Christmas, when we of supposedly handy skills break out screw driver and wrench and do our best to interpret Chinese English as we walk through the 40-step assembly instructions for our kids new trike. So it is in my house anyway. These days I just hand the instructions to my wife and fulfill the role of robot, acting only after being given explicit instructions from my more intelligent half. To be fair, the APA instructions I’m having a little fun with are great in that they show you how to mount plywood Hurricane shutters on a number of different types of structures such as masonry, wood frame, etc. Most of the instructions I see don’t even address the different kinds of materials you have to attach your plywood shutters too! The APA also has information on how to make your plywood Hurricane shutters even stronger by installing braces on the back of the plywood. Again, probably not for me or the average Dick or Jane but for those that are truly handy you’ll probably enjoy these materials.

My overall point is that public safety organizations like FEMA and FLASH have been recommending the simpler and less timely method of Plywood overlap installation vs. the older inset method that utilizes barrel bolts. No one wants to see people give up on installing their plywood shutters because it is too complicated or takes too long. As public safety organizations have matured they’ve learned that that their ultimate success is greatly increased by making their recommended solutions simpler, and less time consuming for laypeople. A representative of FEMA that we spoke with recently who also worked for The Red Cross for 15 years cited the example of how CPR instruction now focuses on chest compression and less on mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The rationale is the same as the one we see now for plywood Hurricane shutters. The best method is the one that quickly and easily allows laypeople like me to get the job done. Drilling holes in the insets of your home’s windows, inserting copper inserts into those holes and then getting the barrel bolts on your plywood shutters to match up with those holes and inserts gets a man like me thinking about those Christmas Eve assembly sessions from hell.

The old axiom KISS applies: Keep it simple, stupid.

As an aside I read some interesting information on plywood Hurricane shutter installation on another blog post here. One comment of note was from a person saying that finding the appropriate barrel bolts had become next to impossible. I just took this as another good reason to just say yes to the more current overlap method.

Alberto, the first named storm of the 2006 Hurricane season is presently spinning around in The Gulf of Mexico generating 70 mph sustained winds and this very well might make landfall as a hurricane.  A Hurricane Warning has been issued for parts of the Florida gulf coast.  You could be hours away from meeting Alberto face-to-face. 

Here at A Big Wind this week we’re highlighting practical Hurricane protection information that can help you get prepared today. That’s why we’ve already featured a couple of articles (here and here) on plywood Hurricane shutters. But that’s not enough.

Which leads us to our riddle today…

Which opening on your home stands the greatest chance of failing under Hurricane force winds?

Which opening on your home is most likely to remain unprotected even when you have Hurricane shutters or impact windows installed?

Which opening on your home can you secure yourself for around $150, 45 minutes using an electric drill and 1/2″ masonry bit?

Answer: Your garage door. When A Big Wind started researching how to protect your garage door opening we were pleasantly surprised to find information like that which we found in this story on Bob Vila’s site about protecting your garage door in hurricane. The story features DAB’s Hurricane Master Garage Door System* - a Hurricane garage door solution that focuses not only on bracing and stronger garage door skin, but also on a common point of failure on garage doors, the stiles.

“We use anti-distortion end stiles and a 24 gauge steel skin on our doors,” explains Hunto. In hurricane-strength winds regular garage door end stiles endure enormous forces and often rotate, causing the garage door to “dump out” or give way.”

The article mentions a cost of around $1,200 and up for a Hurricane garage door.

Our question is what inexpensive and effective options are there for protecting your garage door?

Garage door retrofit kits. Secure Door* in Plantation, Florida sells the kits featured in the Bob Vila story and they appear to offer a lot of protection for the money. For $149.99 you can install one brace on your garage door (Secure Door’s recommendation for a single opening garage door). Secure Door recommends two or three braces for larger double-opening garage doors. Check them out on the web here. According to the story on BobVila.com:

“Retrofit kits like Secure Door’s products commonly include bracing systems that install on the inside of the garage door. Secure Door’s telescoping lightweight, high-strength aluminum braces install vertically through the header above the door and through floor mounts that are drilled into the concrete floor. The braces also attach through the hinges in the door itself to protect both from external pressure and internal negative pressure in a hurricane. “3 of our braces installed on a 7 foot by 16 foot garage door will protect up to 180 mph,” says Stumpff. “It takes about 40 minutes to retrofit the garage for our reinforcing braces, and all a homeowner needs is an electric drill, a 1?2 inch” masonry bit, an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver.” Once the garage has been retrofitted, the braces themselves take three to five minutes to actually attach in preparation for a storm.”

Any hitches?

Possibly - the retrofit kit for your garage door won’t do you a lot of good if your garage door is weakened from weather and old age.

So what are you waiting for? According to FLASH, the Federal Alliance for Home Safety, approximately 80% of residential Hurricane wind damage starts with wind entry through a garage door. Would you like to hear more about the threat that an unprotected garage door or other opening presents in a Hurricane? Flash.org has a fantastic video here that shows you how Hurricane winds compromise a structure and also graphically presents some solutions for protecting windows and doors (the information on garage doors is at the end of the video).

* A Big Wind Does Not Endorse Products
The appearance of third-party advertisements, sponsorship acknowledgements, or editorial links to third party products on ABigWind.com or its forum is not a guarantee or an endorsement by A Big Wind or any of our content partners, of the organization, product or service or the claims made for the product or service in such advertisement, sponsorship acknowledgement, or editorial link.

Our recent story on plywood shutters illuminated the fact that there appears to be outdated (and certainly inconsistent information) about installing plywood shutters being indexed on highly prominent search engines on the Internet.

This month, you’ll see a lot more feature stories about plywood Hurricane Shutters on A Big Wind because we feel it’s one of the most useful things we can do to help people RIGHT NOW to protect their home or business. If you’re reading this web site then it means you are out on the Internet searching for Hurricane protection products and there’s a good chance that even if you order shutters or impact windows today, that they won’t be installed this season. That means that plywood may be the only option still available to protect your home or business in time for this season’s storms. According to FLASH.org (Federal Alliance for Safe Home), effective January 2005, Plywood has been tested to meet codes for a 130 mph wind.

Let’s put our recent story on plywood Hurricane shutters in context.

Four points:

1) Good or bad – due to their low relative cost plywood shutters are the most popular shutter solution around Hurricane Country for protecting your home and business.

2) People will use the Internet to find information about how to properly install plywood Hurricane Shutters.

3) People using the Internet will naturally trust known Hurricane experts like NOAA, the Red Cross, FEMA, and their local newspaper and T.V station to give them information on correct plywood Hurricane shutter installation.

4) The latest recommendations on plywood Hurricane shutter installation HAVE changed. People expect the Internet and Television to have the LATEST information vs. a book or other printed information that isn’t expected to have the same currency.

Point one: What Hurricane shutter solution will be the number one choice for the overwhelming majority of consumers and small businesses in Hurricane Country? Right - plywood. People either don’t have the money, resources or time to get more expensive steel shutters, impact windows or other solutions installed. Plus, the huge spike in demand for Hurricane protection products like shutters and impact windows have created long wait times this Hurricane season (typically 8-30 weeks). If you don’t already have your shutters or impact windows in place you’re going to be putting up plywood or you’ll be risking life and property unnecessarily.

Point two: 7 in 10 Internet searches will be performed using either Google or Yahoo! That’s why A Big Wind is very concerned that Google’s number one search result on a key word search for ‘Hurricane Shutters’ or more specifically ‘hurricane shutter installation’ turns up an outdated page that’s still running on NOAA’s servers as we detailed here in our past story. On Yahoo! the NOAA page is the number 5 result. Now keep in mind that when you go directly to NOAA’s web site they link to the more current shutter installation information that recommends that your plywood overlap the opening of your window or door, vs. the older inset method featured on the outdated page that still ‘lives’ on the web.

Point three: It’s not just the NOAA page. The Red Cross, another trusted source for Hurricane information has the newer overlap information but features a recommendation to drill holes in your plywood to deal with Hurricane pressures. Hmmmmm? Is this even a recommendation anymore? It is not mentioned in the very latest FEMA guidelines. And guess which prominent newspaper’s printed and online 2006 Hurricane Guide featured the old inset plywood installation method? The South Florida Sun-Sentinel whose latest guide goes on to say of plywood shutter installations

“If you decide to use this system, it is important to install the shutters correctly.” before mentioning the old inset installation method.

Yikes! Who has the correct facts here? I wonder if the Sun-Sentinel’s researchers ‘Googled’ their information and clicked on the number one search result link, naturally deferring to NOAA’s expert status in the Hurricane Field? And for all the criticism leveled at FEMA for their handling of Katrina we’re happy to report that FEMA has all the latest information on shutter installation on their web site and printed material. Further, FEMA is out publicizing this information at Hurricane expos and home shows like the Ft. Lauderdale Home Show that we recently attended. Our tax dollars at work I guess.

Point four: We’ve been through a lot of Hurricanes since Andrew. What’s changed in installer recommendations for plywood? Namely, you don’t see any recent references to drilling holes in your plywood and you don’t see contractors recommending the inset installation method. Though we’d still love to hear from an experienced engineer or contractor who can give us a good description on some of the differences between these methods. It’s great to know the latest info but it would be interesting to know WHY the installation procedures changed. Again, since plywood shutters are the MOST common method of protecting structures from Hurricane damage it’s something we should all know a lot more about.

As mentioned in our last story A Big Wind is contacting the organizations we’ve found publishing outdated information to ask them to validate their information or potentially update or take down old web site pages.

P.S. Want a great online tool that helps you quickly compare the cost and pros and cons of plywood vs. other Hurricane shutter or impact window solutions? Use the Shutter Tool that FLASH (Federal Alliance for Home Safety) has on their web site – we love it!

High winds and debris can break unprotected windows and then enter your house. Once inside, wind and debris can cause more damage. Protecting windows not only helps you avoid damage to your house, it also reduces the likelihood that you or members of your family will be hurt by broken glass and debris.

Since so many citizens are using the web as a resource for hurricane preparedness information, A Big Wind wanted to see what came up on Google and Yahoo if you did a search for “hurricane shutters” or “hurricane shutter installation.” On Google, the link that came to the very top of the organic search results (i.e. not the Sponsored Links) - was an OLD NOAA link from 2000 with questionable information about shutter installation. The same link came up as #5 on Yahoo.

From what we have read, FEMA recommends using permanent storm shutters if possible. If you are using plywood - their latest recommendation for plywood shutter installation says to OVERLAP the window and there is NO mention of needing holes for pressurization.

This NOAA link at the top of search results for “hurricane shutters” however loads a page entitled, A Short Lesson in Building Effective Shutters. The info on the page was originally presented at the Impact of Climatic Variations on the Caribbean region Hurricanes Meeting, July 20-21, 1999 in Miami, Florida. There is information that is still consistent with the latest thinking that plywood shutters are an inexpensive alternative to commercial shutters, but it should be noted that they do NOT meet the specification of the South Florida Building Code and they do require a good deal of physical labor to manufacture and install them. According to the page:

“You should use at least 5/8 inch exterior grade plywood, which is substantial enough to sustain an impact by windborne debris, but which is also heavy and hard to work with. You should also buy heavy duty 3 or 4 inch barrel bolts, at least four per panel, more for larger openings. The better the quality of materials you use the less likely they will fail in a hurricane.”

Now here is the questionable part:

“There ought to be at least 2 inches inset of the window from the exterior wall since the plywood will be mounted inside this recess. For windows and doors without enough inset you may have to fasten the plywood to the outside wall, which makes them vulnerable to being pulled off by high winds.

Each window and door to be covered should be carefully measured and a piece of plywood cut to fit snugly inside the opening.”

We also found a local red Red Cross site that still had OLD instructions to relieve pressure during the hurricane:

“Cut the plywood to the measurements for each opening. Drill holes 2 1 /2 inches from the outside edge of the plywood at each corner and at 12-inch intervals. Drill four holes in the center area of the plywood to relieve pressure during a hurricane.”

Lesson: Don’t believe everything that is out there on the web, even from resources such as NOAA. Standards have changed and we learn more from every disaster. Make sure you have the most up to date information possible to protect yourself and your family.

2006 FEMA TIPS for installing temporary plywood covers:

• - You should always consider using permanent storm shutters if you live in an area where you know you will need to act quickly to protect your windows.

- If you decide to use temporary plywood covers, you may want to hire a contractor or handyman to make them for you. If you do the work yourself, you will need to cut the plywood and drill holes for screws or lag bolts in each cover and in the wall around each window. The screws or lag bolts should be placed along the top, bottom, and sides of each cover, and they should be long enough to penetrate the wall studs around the window, not just the siding or wall covering.

- Don’t wait until a hurricane warning is issued to make the covers; you probably won’t have time. Make them now so that you’ll be ready to install them quickly. Store the mounting screws or lag bolts with the covers, in a place where they are readily accessible — don’t stack heavy boxes or other hard-to-move materials on top of or around the covers. Use a numbering or lettering system that shows which cover goes with which window.

Are there any contractors or engineers out there that can validate this information? A Big Wind is going to help contact the owners of these old pages that are still out on the web and being indexed by search engines and recommend that they ar removed or updated. Old information that is circulating on the web could have negative effects that were never intended.

UPDATE: There is a lively and very informative discussion here that was started a year ago regarding plywood and other types of shutters and shutter products on Mark Treadwell’s blog. Mark is a self described “knowledgeable homeowner who just also happens to be an Aerospace Engineer as well as experienced in other types of engineering.” You can find all of his hurricane posts here. Great tips Mark - thanks!