100mph Coconuts versus Windows

[AlohaSteven]

Any ideas how best to prevent 100mph coconuts and suchlike in a hurricane from blasting through 2nd and 3rd floor windows?

Exterior storm shutters are the best idea I can think of so far, but wooden shutters have been around for hundreds of years and are relatively lightweight. Done in fairly heavy gauge steel such exterior storm stutters would be better than nothing against the proverbial 100mph coconut, but fabricated thusly steel shutters would be heavy, expensive, prone to rusting, and the skin of the building would be broken where each of the shutters attaches to the exterior (so presenting potential for leaks developing). Surely there is some newer technology to accomplish the same goal using more advanced materials &/or a more clever strategy?

To protect the big glass windows on the first floor we are having our contractor anchor big heavy eyebolts deep into the cement at the top and bottom on the outer face of each stout column all along the wrap-around lanai. If a hurricane looks like it may come to call ashore in Puna then we can snap carabiners into the anchoring eyebolts, unroll cyclone fencing, and snap the wire fencing mesh into the carabiners. This (we reason) will allow winds to whistle through the metal mesh without much resistance yet be strong enough to flex and rebound if struck by flying missiles, such as deflecting 100 mph coconuts from coming straight through the 1st floor windows.

Your ideas toward 2nd and 3rd floor window storm protection would be appreciated.


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It is not our part to master all the tides of the world but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R. Tolkien

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[Hotzcatz]

Put the money that you would have used for such extensive window protection into an interest bearing account and if and when the windows need to be replaced, use the money to do it with. That's the easiest method.

Those Florida sun shades would probably keep coconuts at bay, shade the window and still let the wind in. How exposed to wind is the whole structure? Are there any windbreaks nearby? You could plant timber bamboo as a windbreak, it bends instead of breaks in the wind and would deflect a few coconuts.

"3rd floor" well, I suppose that answers the question as to how much wind exposure there is, huh? Not many third floor structures around. Is this three floors of house on top of a carport/garage floor as well?

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[David M]

I always liked the German roller shutters. Metal and built in as part of the house. Particularly great if you want to completely darken a room. Hmmmm, if money no object maybe get them crafted out of high strength lexan and forego the glass windows.

What if you did replace the most vulnerable glass with lexan or applied that plastic sheeting?

Probably most reasonable approach might be keeping the coconuts a reaso able distance away and then just take the risk. Replacing a limited amount of glass might be the most cost effective providing you can minimize the water/wind intrusion.

I'm just not planting any trees close.

David

Ninole Resident

[mdd7000]

Second and third story solutions certainly present logistic issues. Think of how one would deploy the solution at those heights, especially if any winds have already began. Even a 15+ mph breeze could cause one serious issues at that height.

[EightFingers]

Steven,
You think we'll get that kind of wind in our neck of the woods? I guess I will plant any coconut palms on the WEST side of the house. At 100MPH, you will probably get a lot more than coconuts flying around.
If it's true about the wind, I will be looking into some hurricane shutters for at least the E and S sides of the house.

Edit to add:
I think it's also a matter of keeping the wind out of the house - once it gets in, it can really tear a house apart.

[StillHope]

quote:

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Originally posted by alaskasteven

Any ideas how best to prevent 100mph coconuts and suchlike in a hurricane from blasting through 2nd and 3rd floor windows?
........

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Launch 100 mph monkeys out of the windows![]

[JWFITZ]

Lexan.

Remember in a real hurricane two sides of the house will be blasted. Surface wind from one, and gusts from another.

[Dennis]

Here is a link to the type of windows and built in roller security shutters we plan to incorporate into all windows and doors. I am not sure if this company offers a vinyl version of this window system, but I know I have seen them elsewhere. My cousin who lives in Germany has these types of windows and doors, and they are really nice.

http://www.diyshutters.com/tiltwindows.htm

[Dennis]

I knew I saw another site that sold these types of windows and doors made from vinyl. Here is the link to their site.

http://www.sikora.ca/our-company/

[AlohaSteven]

Launch 100 mph interceptor monkeys out of the windows!

I guess I will plant any coconut palms on the WEST side of the house

Too funny, especially since the west side of EightFingers' house is the east side of my house! (At least when we get them built, Pele willing).

Another local friend wise in the ways and lore of Puna wrote with these useful suggestions and informative comments:

Trim the coconut trees......Hurricane film also can be put on the windows - some of the glass places in Hilo have it - it makes the glass like safety glass - there is also something we have seen -- like plexiglass that they use for the "Pope" mobile and the presidential motorcade - that can be used for the glass....Plus we havent had 100 mph winds in ..... a very long time ..... maybe +200 years. But the answer is no ........... nothing for the coconuts themselves ---Maybe dont plant them in the direct path of your house.... plant them downwind? (basically west of your house....more or less) -- hurricane winds will be come from SE to NW , sometimes direct E to W , or NE to SW but the theme is east to west in all those.

Certainly it makes sense to not have a cocked ballista-load of coconut ammo waiting immediately alongside the house, ready to be whipped back and forth until slingshotting through the windows. However, up at the elevation I am building (between 1,200 and 1,300 feet) coconut trees do not grow so well, I have been told, so EightFingers' already notorious proposed future attempt at bombarding my place may come to naught. [] Rather, I think both Eightfingers and I are more likely to encounter incoming coconut artillery fire from elsewhere; we are about five to seven straight-line distance miles from the ocean as the coconut flies. That is, when 100mph equals 1.67 miles per minute, about four to eight minutes of airborne transit time from the nearest big coconut stands. Albecia and other trees are much nearer.

Yes, I do think it is possible for windborne debris from relatively nearby forest to be problematic, and even for coconuts from several miles away to come calling if Puna experiences a direct hit by a hurricane. Ever visit a place where a major hurricane has been through? A bit of prevention preparation beats a whole lot of headache and expense after the fact. Money absolutely is a limiting factor for us so we are trying to figure out strategies which will not break the building budget. (How ironic if it costs so much to build the place for retirement that one is eating dog phood for the rest of one's life in consequence). Yet, we do want to put in place as good a set of countermeasures as possible/affordable.

Thanks, Dennis, for the useful suggestions and links. They led me to this extremely informative article from Florida:
Hurricane shutter guide: Compare types, calculate costs
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward....htmlstory

At our place in Alaska there are respectable windstorms once or twice each year. Over the last 20 years we have noticed them becoming more frequent and more energetic. Lots of old shingle roofs ripped off every few years when a particularly energetic windstorm comes through. Last year a 100+mph gust picked up a solid, heavy, bolted 2x4 lumber constructed picnic bench and flipped it end over end through the air heading uphill 30 or 40 yards directly toward picture windows on our house. Know that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach when you see something about to happen and there is no time to do anything whatsoever? Fortunately the picnic bench veered just to the side at the last instant and smashed into a big spruce tree rather than coming in to visit us in the family room, but the experience did cause some reflection on all this.

We know for a fact increasing amounts of energy (heat) are being trapped in the atmosphere and ocean waters every year and that this process is accelerating (peak oil production may have past but peak oil consumption is yet to be reached and many nations -such as China and Russia- are massively increasing the burning of coal reserves). It has indeed been a long time since a major direct hit on the Big Island (perhaps accounting for a surprising amount of complacency on the topic) but recently a hurricane did pass nearby Puna, missing by only about 90 to 120 miles or so. Hurricanes have been becoming more frequent and stronger in the last couple decades. So, on the whole, yes, I do think it is money and bother probably well spent to do what one can now rather than after the fact. Certainly this would include purchasing insurance as one can afford such yet if the books of one's library, family photo albums, artwork, furniture, and so on are drenched and ruined because windows failed in a storm then money only goes just so far in curing the injury -thus the interest in physical barriers.

JWFITZ, might Lexan be the above-mentioned Popemobile material? Do you think simply using Lexan in lieu of regular window glass would accomplish the goal, or might the Lexan simply pop out of the frame when struck with flying debris?


)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R. Tolkien

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(