Sounds like my house (but I have a plywood roof).... but being the oldest house on the street, it also sits the lowest I reroofed it myself 10 years ago and have yet to lose a shingle (we had 90mph+ gusts from Irma)..... but I did get 15"+ water in the house from Mattthew

We have some beachside bunker homes from the 50's for sure. Roof might go and windows might blow out, but the block walls reinforced by rock hard plaster and lathe would probably be left standing.

Well, and afterwards...I have a friend who lives in Panama City, and her house was fine (Panama City Beach had some weird pockets with nearly no damage where even the electricity didn't go out), but now she's stuck. They have to walk to get food, because there is no gas (I told her to fill up before the storm, but she's not from Florida, and didn't understand why), and she has two kids and can you imagine the safety concerns being the only standing neighborhood in that devastation? I've offered to let her stay with us (her neighbor said he'd give her enough gas to get out of the worst of it and I could meet her with my multiple gas cans full) but she's stubborn. The kids' school doesn't know when it will reopen, and really, if you CAN get out, after, you really shouldn't be a drain on the already strained resources. The hospital is strained, there is no easily available medical care, and if you can not be stuck in that sort of circumstance, why would you?



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[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

Edited: 10/17/2018 at 01:26 PM by moody

Great video on Fox on the house in Mex Beach that survived with almost no damage.

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Romans 8;18-32 John 3;16-18

2012 Florida Building Code Wind Borne Maps https://www.floridabuilding.org/fbc/wind_2010/flyer_wind_january2012.pdf

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Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

not exactly your "common folks" home but.... Mexico Beach fortress

Edited: 10/19/2018 at 06:39 AM by Plan B

Looking at before and after aerials I'm seeing some newer construction concrete block and stucco houses with standing seam metal hip roofs that faired very well just inland from the barrier island. There are a lot of stick houses and shingle roofs that are wrecked in the same neighborhoods. I found one house that had a shingle roof 2 years ago and apparently had a re-roof to metal last year. Its roof looks spotless; at least viewed on high res satellite imagery.

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If I could magically raise my 45 yr old block house 4 feet I'd be set

Edited: 10/19/2018 at 06:57 AM by Plan B

2012 FL Wind Borne Map

From DAB's post. It shows Mexico Beach's code to be 120-130mph, compared with South Fla at 170-180mph

Edited: 10/19/2018 at 07:07 AM by rc

Thanks. I'm guessing it's based on the fact that that area has never been hit by a storm of this magnitude..... but when you consider storms like Katrina (and the fact that the Gulf is usually a hottub) they prob should

The Insurance companies have an economy of scale and an army of lawyers who delay, deny and obstruct with no legal basis. Moody's story is the kind of story that only has a happy ending because she had enough money to wage the war against them and outlast their shady tactics to the point of winning on the merits. Not easy or cheap and not available to many. The consumer protections designed to protect everyday people from these economy of scale tactics have been eroded and vilified as anti-business big government regulation loud enough and long enough that every day people thought they should side with "small businesses" against big government bureaucrats. Now that narrative is stripped away like a Mexico beach roof and the insurance companies shenanigans are just beginning. The people will have to rebuild, they will be forced to do it cheaply because the payouts are diluted and they will not be brought up to the Miami Dade code unless there is any institutional memory of this.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

2017 Florida Building Code SECTION 1609 - WIND LOADS https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/FBC2017/chapter-16-structural-design

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Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Edited: 10/20/2018 at 06:57 AM by dab

Journal Of Light Construction Has a great article with several links to other info about coastal building to withstand wind storms and storm surge.

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Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

I have no idea about this... but what kind of insurance savings would you get for a house like that? I do know you get some relief for adding impact windows / shutters