Palm Beach County in Florida is so concerned about hurricane safety, they recommend that you please use the Palm Beach County Hurricane Survival Guide in preparing for the upcoming hurricane season. It contains important numbers, lists of supplies that you need, home safety checklists, recommendations for types of shutters and windows that you use in your home and many other things that you need to be aware of or handle before or during a storm.
One thing that they emphasize is that plywood covering standard windows does not meet building codes, and should not really be used for making your home safe during a storm. Plywood won’t protect you and your family when it covers a standard window. The glass can still be broken, and will still come out of the frame. This can cause both devastating damage due to abrupt pressure changes inside your home and also because of the driving wind and rain that will enter when breakage occurs. Also, too many homeowners who use plywood do not leave a safe exit route from their home, in case of fire or other emergency during or after the storm.
They also recommend:
Don’t tape windows. Taping standard or regular windows to prevent breakage is not effective. When the taped windows break, shards of glass will fly everywhere, and that is not good. The only windows that withstand breakage and stay in the frame when broken are hurricane impact windows.
Don’t open the windows of the house to reduce pressure. The only to keep your home safe and reduce pressure is keeping the wind out. Impact resistant windows keep your home sealed up tight and decrease the amount of damage done by the wind.
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Taking precautions and preparing your home significantly reduces the amount of damage done to your property.
One of the best things that you can do to prepare your home for a major storm is to install hurricane impact windows. They are the only window allowed by Florida to not be covered by hurricane shutters during a storm, and that says something. They have superior impact resistance, are specially coated with lamination just as your car’s windshield is so that they are extremely hard to break, resist the wind, and stay in the frame even in the unlikely event of breakage. Hurricane impact windows are the best protection you can buy for your home if you live in Florida.
