In Florida it is common practice to build using masonry units, this is primarily motivated by the numerous insects which will attack wooden structures with glee, but also helps buildings withstand high winds. Unfortunately building a highly resilient structure will not stop your windows from being blown out. So a counter measure must be designed. With most of the many efforts that can be made to storm proof a building the cost will increase. Not everyone will be able to afford that cost. If you are poor, it may be all you can do to build anything.

And if a storm surge buries your building under 18 feet (5.5 meters) of water, what was the point of all the money invested?

It is not a problem which admits of easy solutions.

Port cities are where they need to be. Their advantages and faults are inherent.

The same can be said of the many areas vulnerable to storm damage.

...when you get up into winds in excess of 155 mph (249 km/h) you have enough damage if that extreme wind sustains itself for as much as six seconds on a building it's going to cause rupturing damages...

I knew I was being conservative. I didn't know it was quite that bad. And there is no point in quibbling about the distinction between damage and destruction. Once your windows and doors have lost their integrity and debris is blowing through your home...

Your home has become a shooting range.

Regarding the Saffir-Simpson Scale it would seem that when you are in the path of a storm on the upper end of the scale, the best thing to do is run.

If you can do so.

I almost forgot, roofs they do like to go airborne in high winds.

Saffir Simpson Scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcQ1pF-g_8

A Lunatic in a wind tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmJ8tXTcCfE

Don't worry man, my family went and bought some Guns, if that Hurricane messes with us it's fuckin dead!

In all seriousness, I'm not too concerned, I'm predicting at most I'll lose power for a day, my backyard becomes a pool, but that happens with a decent rain storm, and maybe a tree or two gets knocked down. Nothing I hadn't experienced last Hurricane, Miami on the otherhand, those guys are fucked.

Yeah... there's a decent chance that Miami isn't going to fare much better than Houston did after Harvey.

I wonder how much of Florida will still be above water after Irma passes through. Good luck, friends.

Speakibg of Paugers, where is he?

Vanquished by yours truly.

Excerpts from a GQ article by Jack Moore:

Earlier this week, Limbaugh made the disingenuous and dangerous claim that Hurricane Irma was a media-constructed hoax, designed to increase ratings and sell people on the idea of climate change. This was of course nonsense, which should have been clear...

Today it was announced that the talk radio host, who lives in Florida, would be evacuating after all. It's almost like the media wasn't perpetuating some liberal hoax, but rather was reporting things that were happening.

As a colleague at work likes to say, "You can't make it up."

That is Limbaugh, as in Rush Limbaugh the conservative radio host.

Edited 9/10/2017 02:26:55

Postmodern "architecture" i.e. flimsy wooden rectangles might be part of the problem.

The Roman Architect Vitruvius was famed for asserting in his book De architectura that a building should exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas – that is, it must be solid, useful, beautiful.

I have heard others translate it as firmness, economy, and delight.

Regardless a building should be strong, and should be able to convince us that is so. For my own part, what I have found objectionable about so much Postmodern Architecture is that it is ugly.

Two examples of late Roman architecture of the western Empire.

Santa Sabina, Rome: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/7055751.jpg

Basilica of Constantine, Trier: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q9z0suLgrh4/UUjH8Y2F_5I/AAAAAAAAG1Y/eP4yjkz4AnE/s1600/20130316-IMGP1962.jpg

If the buildings of this century look as good in 1500 years, we will have done well.

Edited 9/12/2017 03:59:46

Guys, Barbuda basically doesn't exist anymore. Its that bad.

Some video of south Florida & the storm. One minute twenty eight seconds. From the New York Times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Kz-WnKzkI

Video of Sint Maarten. one minute forty six seconds. From Global News.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhb2AsYJG3s

More time and care should be spent designing buildings. Beauty and sturdiness go hand-in-hand - buildings build with quality over quantity in mind, with love and culture, will be perfected in every aspect. Aesthetically and structurally.

Edited 9/11/2017 04:39:08

To avoid catastrophies like these you have to work in three different fronts at the same time:

- Create building regulations that are sufficient to avoid homes and central service buildings (hospitals, schools, ...) from crumbling.

- Enforce current, and new, regulations so that we are sure to reduce as much as possible the risk created by hurricanes.

- Work on the big climate change picture, to limit the T° increase that is responsible for the violence of Irma and Harvey.

Regulations don't work. Better let the free market take care of it. Less regulations = more money for people to invest in sturdier houses, maybe build their own.

Show data of increase in storm size and quantity to support last claim.

What a bunch of little pooftas , scared of rain.

I study economy, and in my opinion regulations are needed not because of the free market, but because people are dumb. Given the option between an uninsured and non anti-hurricane home for 200.000$ or an insured, anti-hurricane house for 400.000$, most people will always choose the second option.

Also, prices for house protection and insurance go down if a lot of people take these options vs when little ammount of people take them, as you can save costs by mass-production.

But I don't think there's another solution available. At the end of the day, it's unfortunate, but the gvt has to step in or I'm afraid that every couple years a hurricane will come and wreck the same southern states...

Okay so you want a nanny governmemt. It isn't their job to save people from obvious danger. Companies can use hurricane proof buildings as a selling point. Intelligent people can do their own research and find out what keeps them safe. Idiots will lose money and their lives, that's natural selection my friend.