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September Is Peak Hurricane Season: What That Means for Your Property

Written by Jack Shaw Posted On Thursday, 05 September 2024 13:20
September Is Peak Hurricane Season: What That Means for Your Property

The hurricane season generally peaks in September. Around this time of year, the strongest tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin form. Since this month usually sees the highest number of hurricanes and experiences the most destructive ones, it witnesses the worst damage these natural disasters can inflict on human populations.

These historical facts should serve as a warning. Unless you live in a recreational vehicle, you can’t move your residence away from a hurricane’s projected path and wait for the storm to pass in a safer location. You must prepare for these catastrophes, or you may lose your house and fail to receive a much-needed insurance payout to rebuild it.

Strong Winds

A hurricane records a 74-mph wind speed or faster — powerful enough to uproot trees, topple power lines and overturn improperly anchored mobile homes. The higher a hurricane’s classification, the more ruinous it can be.

Although hard-blowing winds are damaging on their own, their ability to send objects airborne makes them more menacing. Depending on size, flying debris can break window glass, puncture siding panels and fracture roof sections.

You must take measures to mitigate potential wind-driven impact damage. Using building products highly rated for wind resistance is a given. You should have scheduled routine roof, gutter and siding inspections ahead of hurricane season to spot problems and get them repaired early. If you haven’t done this yet, book the appropriate contractors as soon as possible because late is better than never.

If you have yard trees, invite an arborist over. This woody plant professional can determine whether you have diseased or decaying vegetation and address the situation accordingly. An arborist can prune infected branches and dead limbs and cut down snags, reducing the hazards you may deal with during a hurricane.

Aside from yard trees, patio essentials can imperil your property when high winds lift them. Store items inside and secure the ones you can’t bring in to have one less thing to worry about.

Masonry is the most wind-resistant hardscaping material. Use stone, concrete and brick for your non-living landscaping features, such as walkways and sitting walls, to help your finished yard survive devastating hurricane winds relatively unscathed.

Storm Surge

Intense tropical storms don’t need to touch land to be calamitous. Cyclonically moving winds can push seawater into the shore, inundating floodplains. Before landfalling, hurricanes can send deluges to backwater through coastal river mouths and tidally elevate inland bays and ports.

Experts predict more tropical cyclone activity in the 2024 North Atlantic hurricane season. One meteorologist even forecasts that 11 of the 23 named storms might evolve into hurricanes — five of which might ultimately become Category 3 or higher.

Unfortunately, building up to code is typically insufficient to protect your property from the dire effects of rising sea levels and coastal flooding. The good news is that you can safeguard your valuables by:

•  Constructing your first floor above your area’s base flood elevation.
•  Using materials that can tolerate saltwater.
•  Not enclosing your ground-level living spaces.
•  Using flood vents in enclosed ground-level living spaces.
•  Detaching the garage.
•  Setting home equipment, like an outdoor air conditioning unit, up high.

Heavy Downpours

Hurricanes are synonymous with large volumes of rainwater. However, an analysis of the 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season reveals that climate change has aggravated three-day extreme rainfall rates and amounts by 11% and 8%, respectively.

Despite the world's best efforts, reversing the effects of climate change won’t happen overnight. Expect every hurricane to shower you with significant precipitation quickly, threatening your property’s structural integrity.

Water doesn’t mix well with interior home areas — a single leak can render your house structurally unsound. A tight building envelope is your best defense against heavy downpours. Patch all holes in the house by caulking cracks in the wall and fixing broken home exterior sections to keep rainwater at bay. Use reinforcements like storm windows to neutralize wind-driven impact.

Moreover, rethink your landscape design to render inland flash floods ineffective. Some of the best practices include:

•  Grading your yard to direct floodwater away from your home and into the storm drains.
•  Planting plenty of deep-rooted vegetation to reduce soil erosion.
•  Using hardscaping materials strategically to cause excess water to seep into the ground.

Keep Your Property Structurally Sound Come Rain or Shine

Mitigating the effects of one ravaging tropical cyclone after another during every hurricane season is a tall order. Although the forces of nature can overwhelm anything, you can make your property as resilient as possible to withstand disasters of epic proportions by planning your home improvements with foresight and taking action with a sense of urgency.

 

Jack Shaw is a writer and editor for the lifestyle magazine Modded, as well as a car enthusiast and lover of nature. His writings on home design and renovations have been published on sites like CADdetails, A House in the Hills, House 2 Home Organizing and more. Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn.

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