Storm Proofing a House in Philippines

[Gary D]

Here in the UK the roof trusses are lightly fixed to the wall plates which are tied to the walls in a few places, but then the 2-3 tons of roof tiles aren't going anywhere. When you only have a few pounds of tin roof it's a different matter.

[Arizona Kid]

Iv'e seen some Ariel pictures of storm proof houses after hurricanes in Florida. They stand alone amid mass destruction in an entire neighborhood. Your house is safe but don't expect to get electric service and other thing for a long time.

[Tommy T.]

17 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

Iv'e seen some Ariel pictures of storm proof houses after hurricanes in Florida. They stand alone amid mass destruction in an entire neighborhood. Your house is safe but don't expect to get electric service and other thing for a long time.

Like power, water, food...

[OnMyWay]

Have you seen the Bahamas?  Total devastation on Abaco!  That is about 300 km from my house, so we dodged a bullet this time.

Just goes to show, not much you can do when a cat 5 hits you, and in this case, it just sat there not moving for over a day.  Can you imagine 150+ mph winds for that long!!

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

13 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Just goes to show, not much you can do when a cat 5 hits you

Areas of the Philippines that are in the Typhoon belt are hit with category 2 and 3 and 4 typhoons every year and often 2 or 3 times in the same year.  People with shanties just rebuild after the storm.  In my experience, people with concrete block houses have them built to withstand a cat 4 without any additional stormproofing everytime a normal typhoon comes by.

If it is useless to try to stormproof for a cat 5, then it must be pure luck that some houses are still standing while their neighbor's houses or roofs are blown away.  i don't believe in pure luck.  I do believe that even a stormproofed house can be in the path of a storm so powerefull that there is nothing they could have done.  I also believe that the destrustion is what makes the news and the people who did the work to safeguard their home are overlooked. I wish you good luck if and when you are caught in a cat 5.  Its scary as feck!  Good thing I was prepared and stormproofed as much as possible.

[Tommy T.]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I do believe that even a stormproofed house can be in the path of a storm so powerefull that there is nothing they could have done.

Agreed.

Unless someone builds underground or a super expensive "bomb-proof" fortress, I believe the best that can be done is to make their abode typhoon or hurricane "resistant." That should withstand all but the most powerful. I am planning for the possibility of strong storms here, even though they are supposedly unheard of and don't happen here...

Remember too that accurate weather records only go back about 150 years or so? Think about people who build homes on flood plains referred to as 100 flood plains. There are also 500 year and 1,000 year - and likely beyond that - flood plains. I think the same thing may be true about storms. And we also don't know about the future any more - maybe there is such a thing as Cat 6 or above for storms? 

[GeoffH]

Too soon?

[Dave Hounddriver]

33 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

Too soon?

Just one thing I would change

[Tommy T.]

11 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Just one thing I would chang

Actually, maybe that's the fabled Cat#6?

Because nothing can withstand it?

Or should we start a new topic called Stormproofing a Relationship?

Edited September 4, 2019 by Tommy T.
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[Jack Peterson]

8 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Or should we start a new topic called Stormproofing a Relationship?

Cracks Tom?