[DelaneyM]

I live in the Caribbean, and we get a lot of hurricanes. A few every year.

We build for extreme weather. Our building codes (and common sense) protect us. My house has 10" of concrete on all our exterior walls and 1" concrete shingles on the roof, with no electrical system below waist height. We have 1/4" galvanized sheets of metal in the shed that we can bolt over all our windows when a cat-4 blows through. Don't get me wrong - a cat 2+ is still a giant pain in the ass to live through, but it's not a long-term problem.

Also, most people don't bother with home insurance (unless they have a mortgage) covering storm damage. You build your house in anticipation of repairing it and thus build better.

A lot of our current situation is only possible because we had an island-wide reset in 2004 (https://youtu.be/NzzeDGICjbA), that may be what it takes for Florida.

[JumpCrisscross]

> We build for extreme weather

Huh, apparently “wind is responsible for greater property loss than water” [1].

[1] https://hazards.colorado.edu/research/working-papers/94

[DelaneyM]

It does depend on the housing in question too.

As the study concludes, wind will absolutely tear apart a cheap house, or a structure not built to be resilient to wind. And most aren’t.

_But_ once you’re ready for wind , as we are, you live in fear of the storm surge accompanying a major hurricane. Especially since it lasts 4-6 hours and can overlap with high tide, that’s a 15-20’ sea level rise of churning water. No house can be practically hardened against that, and when wind is gusting at 100+mph it’s not safe to run or move.

When we anticipate a major storm surge + storm, we plan for an island-wide evacuation of 50,000+ people to seven small shelters.

[EasyMark]

What do you do about flooding or is your house above the levels that hurricanes tend to push water? Do you have water proof furniture? Just curious.

[DelaneyM]

Our house is above the prevailing level, built on a cement slab foundation. We have no basement, and water would have to be >3' high above the land to get into the house, but that's only ~10' above sea level.

We have no electrical wiring below waist height, I think 3'? Our floors are tiles and our load-bearing walls are cement, so if we just had flooding we'd be able to get to ~13' above sea level before being in real trouble. Our furniture would be written off.

Our house is actually a bit more durable than the country. If we had a 15' storm surge, the house might survive, but the island would be toast. That would submerge nearly the entire island, and it would be happening during a hurricane. It would take months to recover even basic infrastructure. Our plan for that is to give up everything we own and return in a year or two to rebuild.

_But_, for a variety of reasons, a 15' storm surge is meteorologically improbable here. It's a once-in-a-millennium event, even accounting for the worst of global warming. Nothing is impossible, but there's no point in planning for it; it's like living within a thousand miles of yosemite national park. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[xnx]

Is the Caribbean as low-lying the Florida coast. There's not much you can do if you have a foot of water surrounding your house.

[DelaneyM]

Depends on the island!

As I said in a different response though, when you have a hardened home you fear storm surges, and we do. Our house would probably be obliterated by a 12’ storm surge at high tide.

We’re built on a 3’ high cement slab foundation though, so if we had only 1’ of water around the house we’d be fine. (This is a building code here, it’s nearly impossible to build a basement and your house must be floored 18” above your prevailing level.)

For a variety of meteorological reasons that’s exceptionally unlikely for my specific location, but it’s something we’re acutely aware of and plan ahead for.