If your house gets hit by MAJOR wind, then all details of construction need to be executed correctly. When the wind is over 100+, all the details start to matter. Major issues are tying the studs to the foundation, and then the roof rafters to the studs. These are done with straps and simpson "hurricane ties" on at least every other rafter/stud.

Some of the smaller details that can matter just as much:
- Nailing schedules on the exterior sheathing are rarely up to specs. 1/2" plywood minimum, with a galv. or ring nail 8p every 6 (or was it 8?) inches. This is a common problem, frequently overlooked. Usually there arent' enough nails in the sheathing - and the nails are frequently over-driven with too much air pressure in the nailgun. If the nailgun drives the head of the nail half way through the plywood, then it is the same as having 1/4" sheathing. Heavy wind could easily pull the nails and house collapse.

- Fiberglass shingle tabs need to be cemented down. If you read the instructions printed on every bundle of shingles, it says to use dabs of roofing cement to hold down all tabs in exposed locations. This means that every tab gets 2 or 3 gobs of black gook, roof cement. Otherwise, the cement that comes on the shingles won't hold up in a hurricane.

I cant believe no one has even mentioned cuba yet

All these hurricanes hit cuba as hard or harder, and unlike florida they dont have millions to spend afterwards to fix everything up

Yes its very bad for people in florida, but its a lot harderfor cubans

Its funny how the people who say we in Florida are stupid for living here and complaining about hurricanes are probably same people from up north who complain about the snow @ 5:30am on their way to work.

Hi Floridians!! Greetings from WPB. Finally got my power and DSL back up and running and just wanted to send good wishes to everyone out there who went through Frances!

Here are a couple of pics from my apartment complex in Gainesville.



And here is the result of the tree's collapse:



The car owner is pretty lucky that he'll only need to replace the back window and hammer out a dent.

influx - Daaamn! Man am I glad I moved my car! Miatas are fragile.

As I type, we're getting heavy winds and rain, but nothing serious. Power nearly went out a few times last night, but stayed. Just brownouts. I did see those blue/green "flashes" from when a generator explodes. What a trip! Looks like the northern lights for a split second.

I wonder what kind of stocks investors will be rushing to to take advantage of this distaster? :-/

Home Depot, obviously... but what about supplies for power companies for fixing the lines, for instance? Who does those?

It's kinda tacky the way folks can make money from these kinds of disasters... might as well find out where these types are gathering and investing so I know which way to aim some invective.

"Here" being Tallahassee, FL. Whoops.

What I don't understand is why they even allow mobile homes in Florida and other coastal areas. Darwin is smiling on you trailer dwellers.

ChadManMn -

I hope you're using a GFI outlet. Don't want to be a Darwin candidate!

Yeah, it's outside the kitchen, and that whole circuit is on GFCI. Of course, being a "Wet/Dry" vac, I think it's pretty well constructed for that sort of thing. It's just damp carpet - I don't have the thing sitting in a pool of water :-).

I heard it rains down in Flooooriiiidaaa....

/Toto
//got so much less than nothing
///sorry

Am I the only one tired of this 'non-news'? This shiat happens all the time on the coast...now if it were Godzilla who arose from the atlantic and took out the power...now THAT'S NEWS!

EnormousJuan -

This shiat happens all the time on the coast

I've been down here about 10 years, and this is only the second one (and within a month of the first) to hit this area with any force.

2004-09-06 01:27:57 PM Moderator


AgentPothead and Just Ignorant: Stop it girls, you're both pretty.

-- he he -- nice one

good luck floridian farkers

reporting here in knoxville....The first signs of Frances are showing....The extreame outter cloud bands have just moved over the mountains....going outside to enjoy the last of sunshine for a few days..EOM

Central Florida is still under major storm warnings.

There have been a number of tornadoes reported and these outer bands have been nasty.

Heck of a clean up day coming tomorrow for me :(

Woo-hoo! Have power AND beer in Suwannee, FL.

Rae:
Woo-hoo! Have power AND beer in Suwannee, FL.

...not much else. ;)

/lived in Jasper before moving to Gainesville.

dumle-

Good one! But I did this with the same song:

"I got AIIIIDS down in AAAAAAfrica..."

I'm really proud of that one.

/off topic.
//loser.

Hey - take it easy - Suwannee is the weekend retreat - during the week I'm in the booming metropolis of J'ville.

You can stop snickering. (And how is it that Floridians are SO defensive about where they live?!?!)

(And how is it that Floridians are SO defensive about where they live?!?!)

I personally find it fascinating how each little town -- not matter how sucky it may be -- has another little town that they make fun of or have rivalries with. I've lived all over the place, and this sort of thing only seems to happen in Florida.

AgentPothead, are you aware of the fact that Earth is a pretty dang treacherous place to live, regardless of where you might choose to alight on it? Limiting my comments to America, if it's not hurricanes in Florida and the rest of the Southeast, it's tornadoes in the midwest. Or snowstorms in the North. Or earthquakes out west. Or heat waves in the Sun Belt. Or rain storms in the northeast. Or West Nile Virus or whatever it is that's causing problems.

You're showing your ignorance, bud.

I've lived all over the place, and this sort of thing only seems to happen in Florida.

Nonsense. It's a southestern thing. "Alabama: 49th in education, but at least we're not Mississippi."

Just as a side note to the building codes in Florida. Miami-Dade has the most restrictive building codes in the state. Most other counties are adopting similiar codes now as a result of Andrew. I worked in the sign industry for 4 years and we had to engineer signs that were going into miami to withstand 120mph winds for the structural components. The faces in the signs are considered expendable but will stay in the sign usually to about 100mph on new signs. Older signs per Andrew didn't have to go beyond 80mph structuraly and faces were notorious for coming out.

2004-09-06 01:27:57 PM Moderator
AgentPothead and Just Ignorant: Stop it girls, you're both pretty.
===================================
Yeah, but Just Ignorant is prettier... brains are sexy!

Anheuser Busch is on the way.

Unfortunately that's water in those bottles.

No Shiat - only very minor modification needed to Anheuser Busch's normal recipe...

I haven't been at work since Thursday around 1pm and don't know if I'll be back tomorrow.

/work at a bank

Agent Pothead

Others have beaten me to the punch regarding the U.S...but I wanted to ask if your logic included permanently evacuating India, Bangledesh, Japan, west Africa, the Caribbean, and Mexico, since all those regions receive Typhoons, Cyclones, and Hurricanes with some regularity. I guess those people are just asking for it by living there.

Next time get a clue before posting or at least stay on whatever narrow minded hate mongering website is set as your homepage.

Here's some pictures from Celebration. Nothing much happened because Charley took down most of the weak trees in the area.
-----

To all Non-Floridians-

This state is fantastic, hurricanes be damned. These storms are just excuses to gather your neighbors and friends, drink, board up some windows, drink, play board games and drink.

-Jobs are plentiful.
-You are never more than an hour away from the beach.
-Shorts and Flip-Flops can be worn to 90% of work-related functions.
-The women are very attractive and they wear less clothing than in other states
-Except for certain parts of SoFla, traffic ain't that bad.
-Three NFL teams, Two MLB teams, Two NBA teams and even Two NHL teams to root for.
-Only two seasons: "summer" and "almost summer."
-Natural springs, 7,500 lakes and hundreds of miles of rivers and waterways, and
-Most people-except the occasional snowbird-are very friendly.

Sure, hurricanes are horrible natural disasters that we must deal with every few years or so, but come on. Florida is great.

/we're drying out in Orlando. No rain in the past few hours.
//your state sucks.

I personally find it fascinating how each little town -- not matter how sucky it may be -- has another little town that they make fun of or have rivalries with.

No shiat! I grew up in Miami, and every single person I knew there had something against Orlando. No idea why. Maybe it's because Miami's the only place in the U.S. where you have to drive north to actually get to the south... who knows. ;-)

(OK, I'll stop. Glad to see you Farkers still in FL are okay.)

2004-09-06 01:27:57 PM Moderator
AgentPothead and Just Ignorant: Stop it girls, you're both pretty.

And here i thought Just Ignorant was a guy...lol

"On the internet, no one knows......"

2004-09-06 03:41:13 PM wuzupperson
No shiat! I grew up in Miami, and every single person I knew there had something against Orlando. No idea why. Maybe it's because Miami's the only place in the U.S. where you have to drive north to actually get to the south... who knows. ;-)

Miami sucks! :) You know, Miami is a suburb of Havana and Orlando is a suburb of New York which is in itself a suburb of San Juan.

deweysteadman
I was trying to remember which city hates Miami, and you just reminded me. Everyone hates Miami! It's alright, though. I've got family in South Dade, which makes me part "redneck", and my dad's in the Keys. WOO HOO!!!

You know, Miami is a suburb of Havana and Orlando is a suburb of New York which is in itself a suburb of San Juan.

And what's Tampa, then? A suburb of Miami?? ;)

OK, retraction about Suwannee...may have power and beer, but NO WATER. Luckily, I'm trapped in the house with the most wonderful man in the world....keeping a watch on Salt Creek which has merged into the backyard. Ooooh, maybe we can play princess and knight trapped in a castle with a moat....

4 more tears!

OMG you're shiatting me! Whodathunk another storm would hit Florida?

Deal with it, stop whining, or move your ass out. And here's a free news flash: you will probably get another dozen storms like this one in your lifetime if you don't pull a Darwin first.

I live in Michigan.

No hurricanes, no earthquakes, a bit of annoyance in the winter but nothing horrible. Tornados occassionally, rarely bad enough where major damage is done. Some E.Coli in the Great Lakes, but nothing bad enough where we won't survive the drought the Western states are supposed to be hit with soon. (The projections originally made that helped fuel the immigration out there weren't done correctly).

I don't like the winters, so I'm moving somewhere in Southern Europe when I can.

So, yeah, sorry Florida kids, but it's expected. You have a right to biatch about it, esp. if you can't help but live there, but just realize it's gonna keep happening. Sure, it's odd that 2 happened so close, but paraphrasing some hurricane guy, that's just the statistics evening themselves out. It's not out of the ordinary, you've just been lucky for too long.

Gee, Jeffy Jeff and AgentPothead are related huh?

Do you live in Celebration deweysteadman? I really liked it when we visited there.