GoTravel,

That's a good idea. I drove by the new house every chance I had during Frances to see how it was holding up. It did well. I did notice that not one person in the new neighborhood boarded up.

We won't be moving in until the spring so I have some time to consider our options. Since we're renovating so much of the house, I think we might just have our contractor fit 3/4 inch plywood to each window and use those hurricane clips. I figure that will at least save our windows if we get hit with a cat 1 or 2; a cat 3 would be iffy; a 4 or 5 would blow us away shutters or not!

My concern is the shifting weather patterns. I think FL is in for many more of these nail biting hurricane seasons. We're certainly going to have our contractor check the hurricane strapping since the original home was built 20 years ago pre-Andrew codes.

I've lived in SW florida for 10 years and this is the first year that I ever felt fear from the hurricanes. So many, so close together. It is very easy to make obvious suggestions such as yours Philly, but as Patrick as pointed out, storage space is in short supply in Florida (no basements, no attics so everything goes in the garage) and quite frankly, the need has never come up until now. Things will be different now.

So much development along all the coastlines of the US, not just Florida, has put many people in harms way. People love to live by the sea, it is a primal response and so I feel that people will still want on water. This season has just made the point that we must respect and fear nature. We are not the masters of the Universe as we like to think.

New homes are quite secure in storms up to 140-5- MPH. A category 5, well, all bets are off on those. I have written here or perhaps it was on an investment board, that I went on a delivery to a highrise shortly after Charlie and you could pinpoint the age of the homes by the damage. Post Andrew codes are the strongest in the country and rightly so.

Plywood is not practical or available for many homes here which have enormous windows. Even in my house I have 5 12X8 foot high windows. Plywood would be inadequate and roll downs would be 25k. probably more now.

LMF

(Glad to see you back to posting LilMsFoodie.)

Another point about the plywood. In a major storm, it really isn't the breaking of doors and windows that is the main problem. After Charlie many people who didn't board up had no window damage at all, but parts of roofs blew off and that's where the water damage came from. I sometimes think that the plywood gives people a false sense of security -- it offers somewhat limited protection.

However, Patrick, you CAN paint faces and write those funny little hurricane messages on plywood.

I'm sitting here watching the news; they're going door to door asking people who refuse to leave mandatory evacuations zones to fill out forms listing their next of kin. If I hadn't been long gone already, I'd be hoofing it out of there at that point.

Just a couple of curiosity questions:
1. Are metal hurricane shutters expensive? Let's say you wanted shutters for four double windows (no, I don't -- just using an illustration).
2. Do they install shutters that are srictly manual? I'm thinking that you can't open the power ones if there's no electricity. That could be a pain.

k999, in my experience, the metal accordian shutters for basic patio doors (with two glass sides) run about $2,000 per double glass door. Basic windows run about $1,500 each. Expensive, yes...but for where we live, we feel it's well worth the money when they get used nearly every year. I guess you could say it's peace of mind, if nothing else.

They are probably much less expensive in the US, however, because we have to literally have them brought over from St. Maarten by boat, and fly someone in to install them.

I have never heard of any that open/close on power, although I'm sure they do exist. I agree that wouldn't be a good idea when you will most likely not have power during or after a hurricane. Ours shut very easily by just pulling them from the outer ends to meet in the middle, and we've not had to do any maintenance on them in the nearly 12 years we've had them. I do know some people that occassionally have to put a little WD40 on their runners, but I've never had to myself.

For about the hundredth time. Power hurricane shutters CAN be opened without power. It would be stupid (and in most places against the law) to make them so they can't be opened. Just like a garage door -- when the power goes off, you pull a cord, or turn a switch, and you raise them by hand. This is not a big deal. OK? Anyone who bought power operated shutters and can't open them when the power is off, just hasn't figured out how to do it -- or else got taken with the purchase -- but I highly doubt the latter.

Statia, glad you are Ok. How is your husband?

Patrick,

My parents have an early generation power garage door (no, this isn't realted to metal shutters or plywood stress, but it does relate to your garage door statement). Yes, you can open the heavy, wooden double door when it conks out, but you have to use the big iron bar (yard tool) and crate a fulcrom and then shove a crate in (narrow way) after the first push. On the second push, they get the crate the longer way and then they can shove the door open, though sometimes it requires a third push on the iron bar. Modern day garage doors are lighter in material and most people have two single doors instead of one double door.

Some people might have an early style metal shutter that requires this much effort to open. Only by use can manu. determine what needs to be improved. You try to think thru all the problems, but some make it to market. Sort of like the early MP3 players where you couldn't recharge the battery.

Patrick, I missed your previous post about the power shutters being operable w/o electricity. Sorry 'bout that. I only said something about them in my last post because I honestly don't know anything about how they work, and personally didn't really know they existed until reading this thread.

Mimi, I'll drop you an email about my DH. Thanks for your thoughts. :)

No problem Statia, that really wasn't aimed at you anyway. And I also guess a couple of times I've mentioned it weren't it this thread.
Let's just chalk it up to more "plywood stress" which has become my favorite new phrase.

I SO know what you mean, Patrick. :D

Let's hope Jeanne is the end of this season, but all the old timers here on the island keep telling me it's more than likely not. :(

There was a report on the evening news about a priest in Ft. Lauderdale who died today when his house caught on fire and rescuers could not get in to his house because of the hurricane shutters. Very sad.

How very sad. I wonder if they were electric or manual, or if he had them locked in either case. I'm sorry to hear that.

Whew, Patrick. I was wondering if you woke up on the wrong side of the cave, going by your answer to the power-shutter question.

OK, OK, maybe we're all suffering from plywood stress -- even those of us who are 1,000 miles from the nearest 'cane.

Oh, BTW, do statia's prices sound right to all you mainlanders?

We have metal shutters. They are sheet/corrugated metal planks which are held between railings installed over and under the window and then either "clipped" or bolted to secure them. The nice thing is that they are very space efficient, totally stackable. Houses in Puerto Rico do not have attics or basements either! The railings were installed permanently and painted the same color as the house so that they are not seent. We payed about $2,000 for them (installed). We put them in Tuesday so that they could say hello to Jeanne and are now taking them down. Much better than plywood:)