National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Day 5 – Strengthen Your Home

In today’s post for the National Hurricane Preparedness Week, the National Weather Service reminds you that if you plan to ride out the storm in your home, make sure it is in good repair and up to local hurricane building code specifications. Many of these retrofits do not cost much or take as long to do as you may think. Have the proper plywood, steel or aluminum panels to board up the windows and doors. Remember, the garage door is the most vulnerable part of the home, so it must be able to withstand the winds.

Here are more great tips from the Federal Alliance For Safe Homes (FLASH) websiteon protecting your home.

Patio and Yard Inventory: If a high wind event comes your way, you will need to bring in or anchor any items outside of your home that could become a dangerous flying projectile. To make sure you don’t miss anything at the last minute, create a checklist of all of the items you will need to take care of.

Landscaping: In a high wind event anything can become a dangerous flying object. Take a day to make your landscaping more hurricane resistant. Activities include replacing landscaping rocks with mulch or trimming back tree limbs hanging over your roof.

Gutters: Along with strong wind, hurricanes bring heavy rains. Your gutters are there to direct this rainfall away from your home and prevent flooding. This only works if your gutters are clear and in good shape. Take the day to clear out leaves or any other debris. While you’re up there make sure you don’t have any rusted out spots, holes, or openings.

Soffits: Properly installed soffits keep water out of your house, and hurricanes will bring plenty. Properly installed soffits should stay in place in most high wind events, so take the day to make sure yours will stand up to a hurricane. Suitable caulking and screws will ensure your soffits are fit for hurricane season.

Enhancing Roof Sheathing Attachment: You can improve your roof’s resistance to uplift, without removing any of your roof covering! Proper application of the right caulk can increase the wind uplift resistance of your plywood roof sheathing by as much as three times! This one-day activity should be started in the early morning hours as attics can become quite warm in the afternoon hours.

Measure for Temporary Emergency Plywood Shutters: If a hurricane is headed your way and you do not have pre-installed hurricane shutters, you are going to want to board up with plywood shutters. To make the process easier, measure all of the windows in your home you need to protect. You will then want to get all of your plywood cut and labeled to make installation easier if a storm is closing in.

For more information on flood proofing your home, take a look at this video on protecting your home from flood damage by FLASH.

Learn more about mitigation and risk management from FEMA’s What Is Mitigation? page from their website.

Category: Alabama's Weather, ALL POSTS