Hurricane season, though it can become commonplace for those who live through it year after year, should never be taken lightly. It stretches over a considerable amount of time for those bordering the Atlantic ocean, officially beginning on June first and not ending until November thirtieth. Throughout your typical hurricane, data shows that as much as nearly two and a half trillion gallons of rain are dumped every single day – and some hurricanes become even more severe than that. There were nearly one hundred and sixty hurricanes that affected U.S. land – primarily the states of Florida and Texas – during the twentieth century alone, and the tally for number of hurricanes during the twenty first century is ticking ever higher.
In fact, there seems to be a pattern in recent hurricanes, trending towards increased severity of the storm and the damage that it does to United States land (particularly the state of Florida, which has always been one of the most heavily hit areas of the United States as a whole). The year of 2017 alone, the most recent hurricane season, generated ten hurricanes in a row. This is nearly unheard of, as it has not happened to this extent since the year of 1983, more than two full decades in the past.
Hurricane Irma was by and large the most deadly of the storms that hit land in the 2017 hurricane season, causing a great deal of damage and devastation. It was so deadly because of its sheer power, generating as much as seven trillion watts of energy at its peak. It also had one hundred and eighty five mile per hour winds that held up for a total of nearly forty hours, making it the most powerful Atlantic storm currently on the record. And the damage that Hurricane Irma did was immense. In Barbuda alone, Hurricane Irma seriously damaged up to ninety percent of all of the buildings. Unfortunately, this had severe consequences on the population of Barbuda, as sixty percent of the total number of people living there were left homeless in the wake of Hurricane Irma. And Barbuda is just one example of a place where Hurricane Irma left severe destruction and damage in its wake.
Fortunately, there are a number of steps that buildings and homes can take to prevent severe damage even in the face of the most serious storms. The installation of high impact windows and doors is particularly important. High impact windows and doors are designed to withstand high levels of winds, as are typically found in even less severe hurricanes that touch land. High impact windows and doors can prevent a good deal of damage and can even help to maintain the structural integrity of a home or building. Aside from high impact windows and doors, a sliding glass door should also be made out of high impact glass as sold from a reputable sliding glass door manufacturer.
In the state of Florida, the state that sees more hurricanes than any other state in the entire United States, high impact windows and doors are particularly important. In fact, high impact windows and doors are legally mandated in the state of Florida if a building is located within one mile of the coast of the Atlantic, where wind levels can be expected to most severe when a hurricane touches land, sometimes reaching and even exceeding speeds of one hundred and ten miles per hour.
If you live in an area that sees a high number of hurricanes during the hurricane season from the beginning of June to the end of November in most places, it is important to take whatever precautions might be deemed necessary. A high impact glass door system is recommended if not legally mandated, as are hurricane resistant windows. The implementation of such can improve the overall structural integrity of your home, keeping you safe during a hurricane as well as preventing what could become severe damage, as has been seen in recent years as hurricanes have become more and more severe.