The concrete block homes in South Florida built from the 20's to 60's are actually quite well built. They were built during a time of very prolific Cat 4 hurricanes in South Florida. The 40's particularly were nasty with major hits in West Palm, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami in 1950. Now, concrete has to be maintained. The roof has to be maintained and deferred maintenance would weaken the structure.
Getting a new concrete tile or metal roof (ideal) rated to 175MPH+, hurricane resistant impact windows/doors/garage doors and make sure the stucco/concrete is maintained and those homes are like a nuclear bunker. I'd feel very safe and secure.
But wood stick built homes in South Florida are not safe in Cat 4/5 winds. I don't care what the engineers say. You have Hurricane Andrew as evidence of what happens to stick built homes. Furthermore, the vast majority of two story homes have concrete block on the first floor, and wood/stick construction on the second floor. Bad Combination even in new homes.
Give me a one story ranch concrete bunker any day (assuming you are inland away from the surge zone).
socplay02 wrote:jlauderdal wrote:PandaCitrus wrote:Dorian is kind of a test case of what would happen if a similar Cat 5 hit South Florida. The new construction built within the last 20 years would perform fairly well. Older retrofitted homes would perform somewhat worse but would do alright. But there's a lot of stick built garbage from the 70's and 80's that would look just like South Dade after Andrew. Building codes will determine the damage pattern.
Yep, east side would do well where i live, older florida homes with concrete block and steel reinforced..out west pembroke pines, weston would have big problems in a major
I live in Wilton Manors, and my house was built in 1956. It's concrete, but if you over tighten a tapcon, it just spins. We have a new roof as of two years ago, but I was not sticking around for a strong major in my house.
I rented a car Wed when I saw the ukmet model having it come into ft lauderdale basically...the east turn around PR and what I felt would end up being min a major. with Cat 5 top end potential, and the ukmet having significant runs showing that is what prerequisites resulted in a FLL landfall got me to rent the car. Same time I told my boss I was taking a half day to shutter up Thurs, and we left friday morning.
Had no gas issues or traffic up to southern central GA and by the time we got to Valdosta that night, something like 75% of the gas stations in south florida were out of gas.
I'd make that same choice again everytime if I am able to afford it, especially with a 2.5 year old and a 5 month pregnant wife; I think we got very luck on this one down here...I would love to see the sequence of events that had to go in place to haveus not get a direct hit, because as a Buffalo Bills fan, I feel like it was along the lines of Andy Dalton throwing a touchdown on 4th and long to break a 17 year playoff drought.
Point is, I would likely have waited it out in a newer house, because I saw the slow down forecasted (not quite yet the stall though) before I left Friday morning...I think there are a lot of properties down here that would have trouble in a long duration Cat 4 or 5 (actually getting hit with those substained winds), because there are a lot of houses from the 50s and 60s down here for sure.