You're doing your part. You've stocked up on supplies and you're now shopping around for hurricane shutters or other forms of hurricane protection. You have a plan in place for before and after the storm. But why hasn't our power company done their role to help our state?
In South Florida, it seems like EVERY powerline is located above ground. It's like we're just asking to go 2 weeks without power after a storm. We have to do something to UPDATE our infrastructure and place those powerlines below ground.
I understand that this may seem like a huge task costing millions of dollars. But how much does it cost FPL to bring down contractors from out of state to repair thousands of overhead powerlines after a storm? Including overtime, double overtime, meals, and other costs associated with supporting their contractors?
When will we learn to hurricane shutter our electrical grid?
When you think of hurricanes, you think of wind speeds. You know the faster the wind blows, the more powerful the storm. When we design hurricane shutters, we think of wind pressures. This is when it starts getting complicated.
During a storm, your home will experience Positive + and Negative - wind pressures. Positive wind pressure is what is blowing against your hurricane shutters. But Negative wind pressure is a force that pulls away from your house and hurricane shutters. The best way to imagine this is as a giant vacuum cleaner trying to suck out your hurricane shutter. What you may not know is that the Negative wind pressures along the corners of your home can be TWICE that of the Positive.
Imagine a hurricane that's twice as powerful as you think! No worries, Miami Dade Approved hurricane shutters are more than capable of handling the forces of tropical systems.
Imagine this scenario. It's Labor Day weekend 2012 and you and your family are on vacation in Martha's Vineyard (a little lofty). There's a Category 4 monster barreling it's way through the Bahamas and on it's way towards your home in South Florida. But you didn't close your hurricane shutters! What do you do?
If you had your rolldown shutters set up with a Somfy Simu motor and hooked up to the TaHomA system, all you would do is close your shutters using your iPhone. The digital age is here and it has made its way to a shutter near you. The TaHomA Home Automation system communicates with your shutter anywhere in the world and will provide you the peace of mind of knowing your home is safe during a storm.
When Osvaldo Zamora shopped around for accordion hurricane shutters back in January 2011, he made sure to ask all the right questions. He was in the middle of a complete home renovation involving roof, painting, and hurricane mitigation. "I'm spending the money, I want to make sure that I'm getting quality work," explained Mr. Zamora when he first met Omar Fagundo, President of All World Shutters, based in Hialeah, Fl.
"All World Shutters was offering me the Bertha High Velocity Accordion Shutter System, the best one I found, for the best price overall. So when his competitors began to tell me that there was NO WAY he could be a legitimate company, I became skeptical."
When it came time to close the deal, Zamora presented Fagundo with his hesitations. "I reassured him that we would do the job to his liking, on his schedule, and at the price I was quoting him for. And I told him he would be happy with the job we did," said Omar.
Four weeks later when Zamora was ready to have his shutters installed, All World Shutters completed the entire job within two days, on time and on budget.
"I'm very satisfied with the work that was done on my house. I would highly recommend All World Shutters to anyone looking for hurricane shutters. They did a phenomenal job! Thanks!" said Mr. Zamora at a post-installation meeting.
This saying may be cliche but it fits perfectly as a warning. "Use Protection" is short and to the point. It delivers an important message. If you live along the coast and are considering upgrading your home's protection, please do it before it's too late. There's just too much at stake.
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