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Surrounding Environment:
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Your neighborhood and surroundings affect your vulnerability to hurricane damage
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If your house is at the edge of a large open field or the edge of a golf course
or within 1500 feet of open water, you are more exposed to the full force of
the wind and more susceptible to damage caused by wind forces acting directly
on your home. Similarly, if your house sticks up above the trees and is
taller than most of the structures near you, your house will typically be
more susceptible to damage caused by wind forces acting directly on your home.
However, your vulnerability to damage can also be increased by your neighbor's
homes and particularly by the type of roofs on buildings near your home.
Neighboring buildings with flat roofs that have stones or gravel on them
are a major source of wind-borne debris when the wind speeds climb beyond hurricane
force and the stones or gravel can easily break unprotected windows. If
your neighborhood has tile roofs, you will also be at greater risk of damage
from wind-borne debris if wind gusts get up around 120 mph or higher. Also
remember that mobile homes, outbuildings, barns, fences, screen enclosures,
carports, storage sheds and their contents, awnings and canopies can fail
and produce wind-borne debris that can break windows and sometimes tear openings
into your house; letting in damaging rain and wind. In addition, objects such
as garbage cans, bicycles, lawn furniture, and tree limbs start to be blown
around as wind speeds climb towards hurricane force. If the wind speeds climb
towards category 3 or higher, landscaping pebbles and small rocks on the
ground can become wind-borne, damaging roofs, walls and windows. By properly protecting
and maintaining your home and by controlling loose objects, you can minimize potential
damage to your neighbors' and your property.
A checklist is provided to help you identify and list the types of risks that
come from the particular location of your home. Click on
Risk Factors Outside Your Home
to view a checklist for surveying your particular location.
Home Inspection:
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Take a look at your house and surroundings and note the risk factors
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A series of checklists have been prepared to help you identify features of
your home that have frequently been associated with damage and losses in
past hurricanes. Some of the features are less likely to be major issues for
homes conscientiously built and inspected under the high-wind provisions of
a modern building code such as the 2003 or later editions of the International Building
Code (IBC) or International Residential Code (IRC) or the 2001 or later editions
of the Florida Building Code (FBC). The assessment suggestions contained in
this web site and the checklists are intended to help you determine whether the
particular issue exists and whether it likely to be very important for your
particular situation. If, at the end of that self assessment, you are uncertain
whether your house needs certain changes, or have any questions about your
ability to inspect your house, call a qualified professional architect,
engineer, or building contractor. Your local building department can also
be a valuable resource in helping you to understand what current building codes
would require and what was likely to have been done when your home was built.
The home inspection and associated checklists include items that will require
both an external and internal survey of your home. In some cases the checklists
ask for detailed observations, and in some cases measurements, that can be
accomplished if you or someone you know is able to climb a ladder and perform
some simple checks and measurements. The only special equipment required for
the most in-depth inspections outlined in this website is a stud finder with
a built in deep penetrating metal detector that costs from about $80 and
up. The initial visual inspection of the outside of your house can be done
by walking around the house and taking note of certain features. You probably
can also get an initial impression about the condition of your roof. However
, if you are able to climb a ladder or have someone else who can safely climb
a ladder, there are some additional specific things that you can do such as
gently lifting up on shingles or tiles on the flat part of the roof and on
the ridges to check their condition and how well they are anchored. The
interior inspection will involve climbing into the attic to look for a
number of specific items that are spelled out in the checklist.
A complete listing of the checklists contained in this retrofit guide can
be accessed by clicking on Checklists.
Understanding Risks, Costs, and Benefits
Wind can knock out or burst open windows and doors, rip off roof sheathing
(decking) and destroy gable end walls. Over-hanging eaves and gable end rakes,
extended awnings, open porches, and other features that tend to trap air
beneath them are particularly susceptible to being damaged or torn off the
building during a hurricane. Wind-borne debris from neighboring buildings,
including shingles and tiles, can break windows and damage roof coverings and
walls. With or without the help of wind blown objects, the wind can push in
a garage door, window, or door on the windward side of the house and move
inside, increasing uplift forces on the roof (in some cases doubling them).
In fact, these powerful forces can literally lift the roof right off of
the house. When wind forces break open part of your home, wind and water enter
your home and damage to the interior escalates dramatically. Because older
less wind resistant homes tended to break open regularly in high winds,
a lot of the focus over the past couple of decades has been on strengthening the
structure and load resisting connections in homes. However, water intrusion is
beginning to be recognized as an equally important threat to you ability to
quickly bounce back to a normal life after a storm. Unfortunately, there are
lots of places where water can enter your home and damage the interior as
well as your belongings.
Making decisions about what to do and what order to do them in (setting priorities)
can be a daunting task. While observations and suggestions are woven throughout
the text and examples in this guide, a lot of the suggestions for setting priorities
and some ideas about incentives have been collected together and are presented
in three sections. Click on Understanding the Risks
to get an overview of both the risks and what types of retrofits typically make
sense. Click on Incentives to get an overview of
the kinds of incentives that available that may shape your decisions or
change the relationship between costs and benefits. Click on
Cost Effective Retrofits for a discussion of
what types of retrofits typically have a positive benefit cost ratio purely
in the context of dollars and cents.
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