BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) – When bad weather strikes, preparation is key when it comes to keeping you and your family safe. You should make sure your home is weather-ready before a storm hits.
The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, or IBHS, uses science in a laboratory and in the field to figure out how to keep homes and businesses strong against mother nature.
Dr. Anne Cope, Chief Engineer of IBHS, says, “Your building, your home, or your business – that’s your largest investment and you want to make sure that you are making wise choices about how that building is going to stand up to mother nature”
When you’re prepping your home for storm season, Dr. Cope says, “Take a look at your roof. How old is it? Is it starting to peel? Is it starting to look like it needs a little love? If you’re not sure, get someone to come out and look at it. It’s the most important piece of your house.
If you need to replace your roof, Dr. Cope says, “Go look at the fortified standards…get yourself, if you’re going to get a new roof, a fortified roof. We’ve already done the science and made it easy to follow…so that a contractor can pick it up and say ‘Oh I know what they’re talking about. Oh you want it that way? Here’s what it’s going to cost’.”
Dr. Cope also suggests investing in a wind rated garage door. She says, “The garage door is one of the largest openings in your home. It can be vulnerable to the wind popping it open. Once it’s open, mother nature is streaming into your house. She’s going to try to blow the wall out or pop the roof off. It’s amazing at how much additional wind pressure comes in if the garage door is broken!”
Besides a fortified roof and wind rated garage door, Dr. Cope stresses, “The small things that a homeowner can do are really meaningful.” Dr. Cope suggested walking your yard, clearing your gutters, trimming dead or loose branches, and securing windborne objects.
She also said, “Know what is in your insurance plan, use your cell phone to take a video inventory of your whole house, know where you’re going to go in the event a tornado that you need to shelter from.”
If a warning is issued for your area, every second matters – that is why you must prepare ahead of time. Dr. Cope says, “Get everybody to that safe place. If you have time, as you go there, shut all the interior doors and keep your family in that safe spot until the threat is gone. Just something as simple as that can be the difference in the amount of wind pressure and rain going through your house – it can make a big impact!”
For more information on IBHS and other ways to prepare your home, visit their website here.
