Is Your Home Ready for the Hurricane Season?

The 2010 list of hurricanes names has been released and predictions have already been made that this year's hurricane season will produce fifteen named storms and eight hurricanes. Names you hope you don't hear during the next 6 months are:

Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Igor, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie, Walter

Although the hurricane season doesn't technically start until June 1st, we're already seeing the start of an anctive hurricane season here on the North Carolina Coast. A non tropical low pressure system is drifting towards the southeast coast and has the potential to take on some subtropical characteristics through the overnight. The storm could produce occasional heavy rain showers, gusty winds and dangerous rip currents. Hopefully the storm only produces a friendly reminder to get your home retrofitted for this years hurricane season.

According to the National Hurricane Center "The most important precaution you can take to reduce damage to your home and property is to protect the areas where wind can enter. According to recent wind technology research, it's important to strengthen the exterior of your house so wind and debris do not tear large openings in it."

The National Hurricane Center suggests these five critical areas to protect and reinforce your home during hurricane season:

#1 Roof - "Does your home have a gabled roof? If so, the end wall of your home takes a tremendous beating during a hurricane. If not properly braced, it can collapse..."

#2 Straps - "Metal hurricane straps or clips provide the proper measure of strength and safety for the roof-to-wall connection."

#3 Shutters - "One way to protect a home from damage in wind storms is to install impact-resistant shutters over all large windows and glass doors."

#4 Doors - "Your home has either double or single entry doors. If they are solid wood or hollow metal they probably can resist wind pressures and hurricane debris..."

#5 Garage Doors - "Because of their width, double-wide garage doors are more susceptible to wind damage than single doors..."

For more information on these five critical areas simply click on the name next to the picture or visit the National Hurricane Center Website. Hope you have a safe and uneventful Hurricane season. (Uneventful or not - it doesn't hurt to be prepared.)