NSURIT@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> We are slightly Southwest of Houston and will get heavy wind & rain.
> Probably not flooding in my area. This is not being macho to stay and
> protect my
> stuff, but rather just to be available to my customers when the storm has
> passed. We have sent our employees to higher ground and hope we are not in
> denial
> about the dangers. Bill Barber
----------------------------------------------
If you're only afraid of the sporadic tornadoes I think you're in
denial. I haven't seen anything of Katrina but I saw plenty of Andrew.
I've seen the aftermath of one large tornado and one small one and the
path of Andrew's eye was not much different than you'd expect from a 30
mile wide tornado. Category 4 winds are fully capable of totally
demolishing a house and tearing it to splinters. A tornado does it in
seconds, the Cat 4 will just take 10 or 15 minutes to do the same. Sort
of like being hit with a baseball bat one time or a hockey stick a
hundred times.
When I lived in Florida my concrete block house was constructed to Cat 3
building codes which tie the walls to the floor with re-bar and tie the
roof to the walls with steel strapping around the trusses. I had every
door and window protected by storm shutters of heavy, corrugated
aluminum or reinforced plywood. I also laid in about 2 weeks supply of
food and water since it was always my intention to ride out the storm
rather than risk evacuation over an inadequate road system. When Andrew
hit I was about 50 miles from the eye and the house survived with little
damage. Based on a radar image taken about 5:00am I think we got winds
of about 120 mph for a short time. After viewing the path of
destruction where the eye passed, however, I'm not so sure I made the
right decisision. My house had a mansard roof design which is much
better than gable end for hurricanes but I suspect that my house would
have lost its roof if we had been hit by that Cat 4 eye. Once the roof
is down the walls are vulnerable too... even the concrete block walls.
I have no idea what the building codes are like in Houston but I'd be
surprised if your house has been constructed to withstand even a Cat 3.
You should seriously rethink your position.
Chuck Norcutt
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