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Hurricane Matthew is a Category 4 major hurricane that is expected to hit the east coast of the U.S.:
With the Category 4 hurricane expected to brush up to the US East Coast later this week after its deadly assault on the Caribbean, state officials warned residents and visitors to start preparing for some miserable times. Up to 1 million people could face evacuation in South Carolina. Matthew is an "extremely dangerous" storm, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said, one that made landfall in western Haiti on Tuesday morning. It then headed over eastern Cuba with winds of 140 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, before losing some of its force. The Bahamas are next. The forecast is that Matthew will ride along the US coast from Florida through the North Carolina Outer Banks from Thursday evening through Saturday. It could make landfall at any point and all areas should be on guard.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday October 05 2016, @08:22PM
I'm still wondering why US houses don't have permanent wood shutters, as can be found in so many European countries?
Cold? Here's an extra inch of wood between you and the rain and snow. Enjoy heating savings too.
Hot? Here's an extra inch of wood to keep the sun and heat out.
Hurricane? Your windows are protected from flying debris, at least until your roof flies off.
It's centuries old no-tech which has no downsides besides the occasional paint job. Who decided that Americans would just do without?
(Score: 2) by tynin on Wednesday October 05 2016, @08:43PM
I can't say I know on the wood shutters. Everyone around me seems to do the last minute mad dash to Home Depot to buy a couple hundred dollars worth of plywood to throw up at the last minute. That said, it seems almost all of the houses made in the 50's and 60's all come with metal awnings that can be lowered and secured and seem to work pretty well for cooling and securing windows.
I'm happy enough with my corrugated steel shutters. They take about 2 hours to put up if I don't have help. That and the 10" solid concrete exterior wall, I feel pretty safe in a hurricane, although once the roof goes I guess it doesn't matter too much about walls and windows.
You've definitely made me consider getting some wood shutter after this, if only to help get the sun/heat out. The windows are deep enough I could keep them in the recess without blocking my corrugated steel shutters from also being able to go up.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 05 2016, @10:47PM
So, Matthew doesn't seem to be Andrew, but I visited friends in Perrine after Andrew, and saw CBS block walls that were penetrated by the neighbors' clay barrel tiles that blew off their roof. This was the same neighborhood where the hurricane strapping on the roof joists held, but the joists themselves split down the middle allowing the roof to peel away.
Funny thing was, nobody died from all that. Lots of people spent the night holding a mattress over themselves as their houses were stripped away from them, but nobody died from that.
People that got caught in the rising water of the storm surge, they died.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:43PM
I've traveled some and you'll see American houses made of stucco without even any sheathing just the plaster stuff over studs and maybe some insulation and then drywall on the inside maybe a vapor barrier, especially in bubble era construction, so there's no point protecting the windows when the windows are stronger than the walls or the windows are stronger than the roof. Also us northerners see advertisements for "hurricane proof" shatter proof windows where they throw a 2x4 at the window at 120 MPH and shrug our shoulders "what good could that do for us with 250 MPH tornadoes up here". So none of us end up with permanent shutters.
Meanwhile in Europe they think everything should be made post and beam of 16 inch diameter oak and everything made after 1100 AD counts as "new construction" so it makes sense to put shutters on a castle like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @04:36PM
Standard construction is concrete block. Good construction is solid poured concrete. Wood is uncommon, probably less than 5% near the ocean.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 05 2016, @10:43PM
I'm still wondering why US houses are built of paper, woodchips and spit. Meanwhile in Europe, they're putting up 50cm thick masonry walls...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 06 2016, @04:38PM
California homes are wood because masonry collapses on you in an earthquake. It just crumbles.
Florida uses concrete block mostly, with some houses being poured solid reinforced concrete. Many are concrete block with a poured rim at the top.