"Ignoramus21934" wrote in message
...
Why should I leave my house if a mere hurricane is coming. I would
rather stay in it, given that chances are that it will stay intact.
And then I need to defend the house against marauding gangs and
looters etc.

Ig, usually you make a lot more sense than this.

In the case of Katrina, the problem was not only wind, but a storm tide.
If you hear that there is a 20 foot storm tide possibly on the way and you do
not live 20 feet over sea level, your decision to depart should be a no-brainer
regardless of the wind speed.

Here in Florida, 90+% of the homes are built to the strict S. Florida
building code which (I believe) is based on surviving a 120 MPH wind, which is
only a mid-sized Category 3 hurricane. With a Category 4 hurricane you can
expect "...extensive curtainwall failures with some complete roof structure
failures on small residences". I believe a rough rule of thumb is that damage
doubles for each additional 10 MPH wind speed. A class five hurricane has a
minimum wind speed of 155 MPH! You do the math.

One of the biggest things you can do to beef up your home is to make sure
the openings (windows and doors) are not breached. To this end, I just had
$16,000 of high impact windows installed on my home. Those are only tested to
140 MPH. I do not intend to stay here to witness a Cat 5 hurricane. I will be
safely out of the area, watching it happen on TV.

Vaughn