exterior shutters

Have you ever seen the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz”? After my close encounters with various storms, it is a story that I can definitely relate to. Though the story is about a girl being threatened by a tornado, let’s not forget about other extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes and tropical storms. we moved to Florida about 20 years ago to the Gulf of Mexico where hurricanes are common. We had just moved from Kansas to Florida to start our new lives together after just graduating from college. Fortunately, we had brought enough money to be able to buy a house, new furniture and appliances, and install exterior shutters on the windows. We knew well enough that we needed them from our experience with tornadoes in Kansas. 

Our first introduction to a hurricane in Florida was one that had winds well over a hundred miles an hour. We had to admit of being a little curious as to why people around us hadn’t installed exterior shutters, like we had, due to the hurricanes here. Having experienced the terror of a tornado only a mile wide, one could only imagine the devastation that could happen from a hurricane several hundreds of miles wide. In Kansas, our house had been damaged by a tornado that brushed past our house. It sent much of the stuff in our yard into the swirling wind. It even produced golf-ball sized hail stones that shattered several of our living room windows. This is when we decided that we needed to protect our home with exterior shutters. 

After moving to Florida, I pushed for getting exterior shutters for our house, simply because of the greater intensity of the winds in a hurricane versus a tornado. To this day, I won’t live in any house, where a hurricane, tornado, or hail storm can happen, without exterior shutters Here are some tips about exterior shutters than can help protect your home: 

Cover every window and glass door with the strongest exterior shutters available such as metal exterior shutters.While preparing for an oncoming storm, keep a tiny space open in the exterior shutters slats, and keep your windows partially open to let the air flow though. This can lessen the intense air pressure generated by the storm. Start installing your exterior shutters months before the hurricane season. This will allow you more time to choose the best style and color for your exterior shutters. 

Send a picture to your homeowners insurance company of your exterior shutters for a possible discount from the increased protection that they can provide for your home. Take a picture of all your furniture, appliances, jewelry, cars, computers, and anything else you can’t easily replace and put it in a safety deposit box. This will help your homeowner’s insurance company determine replacement values. 

Keep a battery powered radio that broadcasts police and emergency stations on during a hurricane. This will give you the fastest way to know about help being provided for power outages and available drinking water.  Beyond keeping several days of food, water and clothing, you should also have playing cards, a battery operated television, board games, magazines, books, crossword puzzles, large puzzle sets and other simple activities for everyone in the house especially if you have children. This will go a long way to maintain good morale when conditions are less then comfortable. Exterior shutters protect your family from flying glass and debris, as well as your home and furniture from water damage. Today, exterior shutters come in almost every size, color and style imaginable, and can even be custom built. Sure, they can cost a little more, but the protection exterior shutters afford your family and home really makes them an incredible bargain.