Lafayette is the center of the Cajun culture in Louisiana and the United States. Lafayette has a strong tourism industry because of the Cajun and Creole cultures of the surrounding region. The cuisine of the region, Cajun cuisine, is one of the most famous regional cuisines in the US. The land that Lafayette lies on, called the southwestern Louisiana Prairie Terrace, is higher up and not made of wetland like much of the surrounding areas to the south and west of Lafayette. Lafayette has hot, humid summers and mild winters, as is typical of areas along the Gulf of Mexico.
And it has hurricanes. Though Lafayette does not really suffer significant flooding problems because of its situation on the Prairie Terrace, it does get the high winds and tornadoes that hurricanes bring with them. In 2008, Hurricane Ike caused an estimated $27 billion in damages to the Gulf coast. Louisiana in particular had more than $318 million in losses related to Hurricane Ike. And that was directly after Hurricane Gustav left more than 800,000 people across Louisiana without electricity (including Lafayette), some for two weeks or more. The high winds caused storefronts to collapse in Lafayette, home damage, and there were several reported tornadoes that added to the destruction.
If you live in Lafayette, one of the most important things that you can do to protect yourself is retro-fit your current home with hurricane shutters, or add hurricane shutters to the home you are building. If you want a classic New Orleans or Louisiana look to your home, Colonial shutters are absolutely the way to go. Patterned after the original wooden shutter of the gracious New Orleans, Colonial Shutters enhance the beauty of your home, apartment or office building while protecting you against violent weather conditions. The versatility in traditional Colonial shutters allows them to be individualized to suit countless home designs, and they can even be fitted to the gorgeous bay windows so popular in the area. They open and close easily, and provide a barrier against wind and rain, even muting and keeping out the sounds of the storm. When open, the Colonial shutter creates a stately air of elegance, and when they are closed, they protect against the high winds and driving rain of hurricanes and tropical storms.
Colonial shutters are a great look for a Louisiana home; they look like the classic wooden shutters of the area, but are really made of impact resistant materials. This makes them much stronger, and their long lasting, maintenance free beauty will not only enhance your home, it will protect it from storms.
