Hurricane shutters/panels - How many escape routes?

[k350]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

I've lived in hurricaine country. We didn't put up our shutters for every cat 1 storm. If we had the automatic shutters, then maybe we would have.

But the whole concern about a point of egress was never something we thought about. There was still the front door. And the garage.

You may have not, but plenty of people do, if you lived in a hurricane area, you could have not noticed this.

Even for cat 3, the only people who would evacuated are people in like a trailer house, or some coastal home. Just because people close their shutters does not mean they should evacuate.

Originally Posted by DubbleT

Why are you shuttering the doors? Is that something people do now? Back when I lived along the gulf coast shutters, plywood, etc were for the windows to reduce the risk from flying glass, has that changed?

If the doors are not impact, then yes, because something can slam right through it potentially, or if have an opening to the inside door, then hit the door, breaking it open. I have seen though where even an outside opening door was smashed through and the door jam broke by debris.

The shutters are more than just for the flying glass, but for other debris and the huge amount of rain that would come into the home from a broken window, thus destroying things that otherwise would have been fine if there were shutters to protect the windows from breaking.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by k350

You may have not, but plenty of people do, if you lived in a hurricane area, you could have not noticed this.

Even for cat 3, the only people who would evacuated are people in like a trailer house, or some coastal home. Just because people close their shutters does not mean they should evacuate.

If the doors are not impact, then yes, because something can slam right through it potentially, or if have an opening to the inside door, then hit the door, breaking it open. I have seen though where even an outside opening door was smashed through and the door jam broke by debris.

The shutters are more than just for the flying glass, but for other debris and the huge amount of rain that would come into the home from a broken window, thus destroying things that otherwise would have been fine if there were shutters to protect the windows from breaking.

I did notice people using storm shutters for smaller storms. Like I said, they were mostly folks with automatic shutters where they just had to flip a switch. A lot of folks who had vacation homes in the area favored those because they could close them even when they weren't there. Or they just kept them closed all the time when the house was unoccupied because it protects from theft too.

We were issued mandatory evacuations for Cat 3 or greater storms. Cat 1 and 2 storms triggered mandatory evacuations for mobile homes and people directly on the water. I don't live there any more, but my brother does. They just had a mandatory evacuation for a Cat 3 storm last season.

And any storm that is strong enough to launch debris through your front door is one you should have evacuated for. No Cat 1 or 2 storm is going to cause that much damage.

[k350]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

I did notice people using storm shutters for smaller storms. Like I said, they were mostly folks with automatic shutters where they just had to flip a switch. A lot of folks who had vacation homes in the area favored those because they could close them even when they weren't there. Or they just kept them closed all the time when the house was unoccupied because it protects from theft too.

We were issued mandatory evacuations for Cat 3 or greater storms. Cat 1 and 2 storms triggered mandatory evacuations for mobile homes and people directly on the water. I don't live there any more, but my brother does. They just had a mandatory evacuation for a Cat 3 storm last season.

And any storm that is strong enough to launch debris through your front door is one you should have evacuated for. No Cat 1 or 2 storm is going to cause that much damage.

It depends on the door/frame though. There are doors, and sidelights, with non impact glass, debris will slam right through that. I been in a home after a hurricane, where the water from the rain just blew through the door seal for hours on end, no damage, they just had to keep mopping it up and put a bunch of towels down.

A piece of debris even slamming against a normal door in a cat 1 can potentially damage it. A cat 1 has sustained winds at a minimum around 70mph, imagine that for hours, blowing right on your door.

I have all impact glass, also have accordion shutters. I close the shutters for everything except the front and back door if it is a strong three and higher.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by k350

It depends on the door/frame though. There are doors, and sidelights, with non impact glass, debris will slam right through that. I been in a home after a hurricane, where the water from the rain just blew through the door seal for hours on end, no damage, they just had to keep mopping it up and put a bunch of towels down.

A piece of debris even slamming against a normal door in a cat 1 can potentially damage it. A cat 1 has sustained winds at a minimum around 70mph, imagine that for hours, blowing right on your door.

I have all impact glass, also have accordion shutters. I close the shutters for everything except the front and back door if it is a strong three and higher.

Right. You can cover the sidelights with a shutter, but your door is still available as a point of egress. If you don't have a garage, and every exterior door is glass, and you live in hurricaine country, then you've made some poor design choices.

As I said before, we only ever put our shutters up when we were under evacuation orders, which was Cat 3 or higher, which means we weren't home during the storm anyway to worry about points of egress.