The Homeowner's Hurricane Handbook

CHAPTER 1

The Nature of the Beast

If you live within 100 miles of the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico coast, you are very much at risk when a major hurricane comes ashore in your area. The closer to the coast, the greater the risk. But if you understand what hurricanes are, how the warning system works, and how to prepare for them, your odds of survival increase enormously. The same goes for your ability to protect your property.

Ever since modern man evolved on this planet, severe hurricanes have proved over and over again to be the single most catastrophic event nature has thus far sent our way. They are worse than tornadoes (which can be stronger but are far smaller and much more short-lived); even worse than tidal waves (tsunamis), earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions—at least those we have experienced since the beginning of recorded history. It doesn’t matter whether you call them hurricanes, typhoons, or tropical cyclones, over the course of history these huge, extremely violent windstorms have caused more human deaths and more widespread damage than almost all other natural disasters combined.

Some terrifying examples: As recently as November 13, 1970, an extremely severe tropical cyclone slammed into the lowlands of East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh), killing at least 500,000 people. Some unverified estimates raise the number to almost one million. A storm on October 7, 1737, did the same in Bengal, India, causing more than 300,000 human deaths. And yet another 300,000 or more unfortunates were also killed in Hiapong, Vietnam, in 1881.

Damage in Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. FEMA photo by Marty Bahamonde.

Why did so many die in these storms? Lack of sufficient warning is undoubtedly the single most significant factor. In situations like these, geography can also be a major contributing feature: low-lying shorelines with an extremely high human population density (still true today around the Bay of Bengal) are exceedingly vulnerable to storm surges, which have been recorded even in modern times to exceed 20 feet and reach many, many miles inland. During and after a major hurricane, water (flooding and storm surge) kills far more people and causes far more damage than the strongest winds. Hurricane Katrina (2005) in New Orleans is a prime example of the terrible delayed flood damage that can follow a major hurricane.

Even in recent times there have been storms with fatalities totaling in the many thousands. Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in October 1998, a Category 5 with 165 mph winds, officially leaving at least 9,086 dead in its wake. But the true total from that catastrophe, by some estimates more than 20,000, will likely never be known because of the remoteness of the region and lack of an accurate census.

In 2005, Hurricane Wilma, a Category 5 storm with maximum winds of 185 mph and a minimum central pressure of 882 millibars (a new record for Atlantic hurricanes), slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, almost a direct hit on the resort city of Cancun, before moving on to cross South Florida as a Category 3 with 125 mph winds several days later. The total damage in the United States was more than $20 billion, yet only 22 U.S. deaths were attributed to Wilma. Everyone knew it was coming almost a week before it arrived and had plenty of time to prepare.

I visited Cancun four months after Wilma, and even in that short time the area had made a surprising recovery. I observed a number of wrecked vessels of all sizes on nearby reefs—the most visible evidence of the storm—and some damaged buildings were still under repair. Thanks to advance warnings from both the U.S. and Mexican governments, fatalities were significantly reduced in that country and structural damage was not nearly as severe as it otherwise could have been.

Compare Hurricane Wilma’s fatalities to the worst hurricane ever to hit the United States in modern times, at least considering the human casualty total: the Great Galveston Hurricane, which smashed into that low-lying Texas coastal city on September 9, 1900, as a Category 4 with maximum winds of 145 mph. It killed an estimated 12,000, mostly by drowning. Lack of warning was the reason so many died; no one even realized such a massive hurricane was out there until it suddenly came ashore at daybreak.

Since that dreadful day, the number of human casualties in the United States, and to a significant extent in all the other developed nations around the Atlantic basin, has declined dramatically as the hurricane warning system has steadily improved. Another factor in human casualty reduction, and steady decrease in hurricane damage (relative to what would have happened otherwise) is a better understanding of what these storms are, and how to prepare for them. Improvement in building codes in most U.S. coastal counties, especially since the debacle of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, is also a contributing factor.

Hurricane Andrew making landfall just south of Miami on August 24, 1992. NOAA photo.

Hurricane Andrew came ashore just south of Miami, Florida, during the predawn hours of August 24, 1992, with maximum sustained winds of 170 mph and gusts to at least 200. It was the first Category 5 storm to hit the United States since Camille struck Louisiana with 190 mph winds in 1969, and at that time Andrew was also the most destructive hurricane ever to strike the United States. It did a total of $31 billion damage to Florida and Louisiana, yet the core of its most destructive winds was only 20 miles wide, and it moved rapidly along an east-west track across the Florida peninsula right over the city of Homestead (20 miles south of Miami), which meant it came and went in just a few hours. Had Andrew come ashore directly into downtown Miami, both the damage and the human casualty figures would almost certainly have been higher.

One of the principle reasons for the high damage in southern Dade County was lenient building codes at that time. Miami had been lucky for 27 years; the last major hurricane to hit South Florida was Betsy in 1965, a Category 3 storm with maximum winds of 125 mph that came ashore on Key Largo 40 miles south of Miami. And only one year earlier, Hurricane Cleo actually scored a direct hit on downtown Miami as a Category 2 with 105 mph winds. But damage from neither Betsy nor Cleo was extreme in the Miami area, further contributing to a general sense of complacency.

And because of this extended lull in hurricane activity along the southeast Florida coast, local homebuilders had constantly lobbied for less rigid construction codes to save on rapidly rising costs. But the reality is that cheaper homes are weaker homes. And unfortunately, some of the construction was also downright shoddy, as evidenced by Andrew’s total destruction of many homes built during the 1980s.

When Hurricane Andrew arrived, I was living in a house a few miles south of Miami, right on the northern edge of the storm’s path of major destruction, but also far enough inland not to be at risk from storm surge. My house had been built in 1968, a concrete block structure with substantially reinforced wooden gables and shingle roof. At the time of its construction the Dade County building code was still strong, and in spite of winds gusting to 150 mph or higher in my neighborhood, my house suffered no damage. I had prepared for Andrew by covering all the windows with heavy sheets of plywood, which did exactly what they were supposed to do—keep the storm outside. Incidentally, most of the older homes in Andrew’s path that had been properly prepared came through with little or no damage, while a great many of those built between 1980 and 1992 literally blew apart.

Still, there were only 26 deaths attributed to Andrew in Florida and 54 in the entire United States, despite the fact that after bashing Florida it crossed the eastern Gulf of Mexico and went ashore two days later in central Louisiana as a Category 4 with 135 mph winds.

Damage south of Miami by Hurricane Andrew (Category 5, 1992). FEMA photo by Bob Epstein.

The total damage caused by Andrew could have been even worse had it not been for a warning system that predicted its Florida landfall several days in advance. Still, the bottom line is that many residents, new to the area and having never faced a major hurricane, failed to take these warnings seriously. Some even attended so-called hurricane parties instead of getting ready. If everyone had done what they should have, damage would have been substantially less and likely even fewer lives would have been lost.

After Andrew, another 12 years passed before the Florida peninsula suffered any significant hurricane damage. Then came 2004, the start of a very active two-year period that began with Charley, a Category 4 storm with 145 mph winds that plowed into the southwest coast and moved straight up Charlotte Harbor, on August 14. Next came Frances, a Category 2 with 110 mph winds that struck the middle of the East Coast in early September, followed a few days later by Ivan coming ashore in the northern Gulf of Mexico as a Category 3 with 120 mph winds. Ivan continued northeastward into Virginia, then emerged from the East Coast where it looped southward to eventually come ashore in south Florida as a very annoying and still very wet tropical depression with 30 mph winds.

But Florida’s latest rash of hurricane troubles did not end with Hurricane Ivan. Hurricane Jeanne came ashore in the middle the peninsula’s East Coast on September 26 as a Category 2 storm packing 120 mph winds. Total damage from all these 2004 storms was in excess of $31 billion.

In 2005 major hurricanes Cindy, Dennis, Katrina, and Rita also battered the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico repeatedly. Katrina was in its early stage of development when it hit South Florida with 90 mph winds before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico and headed north to destroy a major part of New Orleans and a large section of coastal Mississippi. Hurricane Wilma closed out that season when it came ashore in southwest Florida on October 24 as a Category 3. The total U.S. damage was in excess of $93 billion along the northern Gulf Coast alone, plus another $20 billion for Wilma in Florida, bringing the final total to more than $113 billion. The official death toll in the United States from Katrina was 1,833 (mostly in Louisiana and Mississippi), making it one of the deadliest in years. The 2005 Atlantic basin hurricane season was the most active in more than 100 years, with a total of 15 hurricanes and 13 tropical storms between June 8 and the end of the year.

Yet, in spite of long-range advance predictions of above-normal activity for both