High-Wind Safety

As we’ve seen with the recent hurricane seasons, homes are not always built to withstand a major storm. Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history. Homes and buildings were severely damaged, if not destroyed, leaving thousands of families displaced. It will take years for communities to rebuild and recover from such devastation.

Fortunately, there are solutions that can help protect your home from a hurricane or high wind event. Building your home to meet or exceed code requirements can have a significant impact on whether your home withstands the next big storm. Many parts of the country follow the International Building Code, which establishes and governs design standards for new home construction. If properly enforced, these codes help strengthen homes and protect them from storm damage.

We invite you to learn more about high winds and hurricanes, how they affect your home and what you can do to increase your home’s storm resistance.

Why Homes in High-Wind Regions Need a Structural “Seat Belt”

Why Homes in High-Wind Regions Need a Structural “Seat Belt”

On a mission to educate homeowners about high-wind retrofits. Like most lifelong residents of the Gulf Coast, Simpson Strong-Tie employee Cheryl Zafiris has a long personal history with hurricanes. Hers started right after she was born.

hurricane preparedness 2020

How to Prepare for Hurricane Season

The Simpson Strong-Tie Mission is to “provide solutions that help people design and build safer, stronger structures.” Safety is an important part of the work we do and the products we provide. In addition to supplying products that help make structures, and therefore people, safer, we also collaborate with outside groups that focus on educating the public about how to stay safe in the face of natural hazards.

learning community resilience after Mexico Beach

Why Is Community Resilience Important?

Community resilience is the concept that we can design and build better to reduce susceptibility to disasters. The idea of building for resilience is in the DNA of Simpson Strong-Tie and is why we’re considered a leader in structural systems research, testing and innovation. That commitment to building for resilience is why we partner with other leaders in the field like the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society.

Made Even Stronger: Mexico Beach Home Rides Out Hurricane Michael

On October 10, Hurricane Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. Having already wrought havoc across Central America, the Category 4 storm became the third most powerful hurricane (in terms of minimum central pressure, a key indicator of strength) ever to hit the contiguous United States. By the time the storm finally cleared, it had tragically claimed 60 lives and some $11.28 billion in damages.

How to Restore Your Home After a Hurricane

In 2011, it was Hurricane Irene; in 2012, it was Sandy and then Hurricane Patricia; 2017 gave us Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate. This year, with Hurricane Florence, we’ve been reminded that damage can’t be predicted by the frequency of the hurricanes or even necessarily where one ranks on the Saffir-Simpson Scale when it makes landfall. Many factors can make even a Category One Hurricane devastating.

Hurricane Season: Understanding High-Wind Home Preparation

As we’ve seen with the hurricane seasons of that past decade or so, homes are not always built to withstand a major storm. The hurricane season of 2017 was one of the deadliest and costliest seasons in US history. Countless homes and buildings were severely damaged or destroyed, leaving thousands of families displaced. It will take years for communities to rebuild and recover from such devastation. Fortunately, there are solutions that can help protect your home from a hurricane or high-wind event.

Staying Put, Riding Out the Storm and Surviving the Odds by Sheltering in Place

Disaster strikes. It’s inevitable, given enough time. Regardless of where you live, there are natural disasters waiting to happen, be they earthquakes, floods, tornadoes or hurricanes. Meteorologists and emergency service providers can often provide advance notice of weather-related disasters like hurricanes, but seismic events, tornadoes and flash floods can often occur with little or no warning.

hurricane Harvey

Picking Up the Pieces — Examining the Effects of Hurricane Harvey

From hurricanes and earthquakes to wildfires, floods, freezes, droughts, severe storms and more, natural disasters plagued the United States in 2017. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reports that 2017 could be a record-breaking year for disasters that cause over $1 billion in damage. As of October of 2017, NCEI reported 15 such events in the United States, only one fewer than in the record year of 2011. Without going into the details of why these events occur — we’ll leave that to the scientific community — there are ways to prevent damage and destruction by building resilient communities

5 Steps to a Safer and More Storm-Resistant Home

As we’ve seen with the hurricane seasons of that past decade or so, homes are not always built to be storm resistant. During the 2017 hurricane season, countless homes and buildings were severely damaged or destroyed, leaving thousands of families displaced. It will take years for communities to rebuild and recover from such devastation. Fortunately, there are solutions that can help protect your home from a hurricane or high-wind event. Building your home to meet or exceed code requirements can have a significant impact on whether your home withstands the next big storm. Many parts of the country follow the

high wind storm blows house

Retrofitting Your Home for High Wind — 5 Questions to Ask Yourself

Nearly all parts of the country are subject to high winds. It’s important that your house is designed to withstand a high wind storm. Knowing whether your house is storm ready requires a few simple steps. One of the first things to consider is where you live. Coastal areas, for example, are more susceptible to powerful winds such as hurricanes. Local building codes for these areas typically require homes to resist much higher wind speeds than inland homes. You’ll want to check with your local building department to learn about the codes that govern your area.

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