After moving out of tornado alley into a state along the gulf coast, I don’t know what’s worse.
We have the impending threat of hurricanes for four to five months out of the year, and the size and intensity of these hurricanes only grows with time. I was smart enough to buy a house that is supposedly rated to withstand winds equal to or greater than a category 5 hurricane. My coworkers tell me that I shouldn’t worry and that my house should be fine if we were ever hit by a massive hurricane. But I’ve seen some of the storms that hit other areas along the gulf coast in the past four years, and some have completely leveled homes like mine. When hurricane Michael hit Mexico Beach in Florida, the only house left standing was owned by a couple that told their building contractors to fortify the structure so it could withstand the strongest imaginable storm. This meant going beyond existing building code and preparing for something like a super hurricane, but in the end their house still stands. Even if my house is safe from most storms, I wasn’t sure about my HVAC condenser unit. It sits outside in a vulnerable place if a huge storm ever managed to make landfall in this area. It was put to the test recently with a category 3 hurricane that hit a portion of the state just miles north of us. Because of the size of the storm, it was almost like getting a direct hit regardless of the placement of the eye of the hurricane. I was ecstatic when the HVAC condenser was still safely attached to its massive concrete block after the storm passed. These are made for hurricane strength winds and worked exactly as advertised.