Home Renovation Tips To Make Tornado Resistant Homes in New Orleans
New Orleans is famous for its great food, and it’s also known as the city that’s always in party mode. Unfortunately, it also has a tendency to get hit by tornadoes more than other cities do. Based on the past 25 years of NOAA data, the annual probability that New Orleans will experience a tornado is 36%. In fact, recently on March 22, a tornado touched down in the New Orleans area which has damaged about 1,000 homes and it had a track of more than 11 miles and peak winds of 160 mph.
The devastating tornado that ripped through New Orleans was not the first sign of trouble in the city, and it certainly won’t be the last. However, New Orleans has always been susceptible to major flooding, hurricanes, and other natural disasters, so building tornado resistant homes in New Orleans should be an obvious solution. In fact, there are many steps homeowners can take to make their homes as safe as possible from natural disasters.
The people of New Orleans have been through a lot and have endured many hardships over the past years. Yet many people are optimistic that things will get better and that they’ll be able to move on with their lives once they feel safe again in their homes – safe from flooding, strong winds, and other natural disasters that plague the Gulf region year after year.
With the damage from the tornado still fresh on everyone’s mind, homeowners in the area are looking for new home construction or remodeling techniques to make their homes tornado resistant and ready for the next natural disaster to hit Louisiana’s gulf coast. So, if you are thinking about home remodeling New Orleans to make it tornadoes and hurricane resistant, here are some tips to help you get started on your tornado resistant home!
Add Trusses to Your Roof
When it comes to protecting your home from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and high winds, there are ways you can improve how safe it is. One way is to add steel trusses or metal decking to your roof. This will make it stronger against large storms, and heavier roofing materials may act as ballast if strong winds try to lift up your roof. With proper preparations such as these, you can be better prepared for severe weather—and stay safe during one of Mother Nature’s worst. If you own a home in New Orleans or anywhere else prone to extreme weather events, consider making tornado resistant homes part of your disaster-preparedness plan.
Reinforce Windows, Doors, and Walls
If you’re building a new or renovating an existing home, you should make it as strong as possible. This is especially important if you live in New Orleans. One of the best ways to protect your home is by reinforcing windows, doors, and walls with steel during home remodeling projects. If adding steel reinforcement will get expensive, try putting together an emergency plan that details where to take shelter when storms approach. Even if a tornado destroys your home, you’ll know exactly what to do and where to go. For example, if there’s a nearby basement that can hold everyone safely inside during a storm, add some extra steps like jumping into our shelter if we hear any loud noises coming from above us.
Secure Pipes with Braces and Straps
If your home is built on piers, it will be less likely to blow over during a tornado. But if you live in an area prone to severe weather like New Orleans, even securely braced homes can take damage from high winds. The best way to avoid damage from extreme winds is to build or reinforce tornadoes-resistant homes. To do so, use straps and braces at critical connections such as around doors and windows. In addition, if your home has bare walls—or if your walls have holes such as vents and outlets—wrap them with sturdy strapping
Install Emergency Lighting and Generators
When it comes to making tornado resistant homes in New Orleans, make sure your home is properly lit during an outage. It’s easy to overlook emergency lighting, but it can be critical for getting through power outages. Generator backups are another critical feature for making sure your home stays livable during storms and long-term power outages. Be sure you have backup power that works before you need it, so you’re not scrambling to get all of your lights working when a storm hits. And, if you want to take things one step further, invest in solar panels or wind turbines for off-grid living. It will help ensure your home has power even if local utilities are down due to severe weather or other emergencies.
Add Extra Protection to Garage Doors
When building tornado-resistant homes, garage doors may not be given as much thought as they should. However, it’s essential to take care of them because garage doors can become flying missiles during a tornado. Thankfully, there are options for tornado-resistant garage doors available. In fact, many manufacturers have begun adding specific features to their products to ensure that they’re prepared for any weather event and can withstand some of its effects. If you don’t have a strong garage door, you can consider adding this to your home remodeling New Orleans project checklist.
Place Heavy Items On Lower Shelves
If you want to protect your valuables during a tornado, don’t store them in high cabinets and shelves. Put them on lower ones instead. The idea is that an object has less distance to fall if it’s closer to ground level; it will come crashing down faster than an object that fell from higher up. These winds have enough power to lift heavy items right off shelves and hurl them at tremendous speeds through windows, breaking them into dangerous shards of glass. To make sure you can recover from such a disaster, you need to consider your strategy for placing items throughout your home. Keeping heavier items on lower shelves ensures that extreme winds will not lift them and carry them through open windows or doors. Heavy items include refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers—any item weighing more than 20 pounds
Secure Entry Points
It’s extremely important to make sure that entry points are secured. During storms, entry points can be easily broken into by high winds. Therefore, it’s important to install storm-resistant entry points that provide additional protection from high winds. Using steel mesh panels on entry points is an affordable option and these lightweight panels can provide structural support against strong wind gusts, allowing you to secure them with basic screws and sealants. For homes that sit near water or flood plains, installing impact-resistant glass is highly recommended for all entry points—the increased protection will help reduce damage from flooding and high winds
Conclusion
In areas where tornadoes can strike, it is vital to have tornado resistant homes. When winds of over 100 miles per hour can tear through homes and buildings, nothing short of hurricane proof homes will protect you. Houses built with conventional construction techniques collapse easily against severe weather like hurricanes or tornadoes because they simply aren’t strong enough to withstand such forces. So, home renovations need to be done on time and with safe materials. Remember that it’s your home, so there will always be upgrades that you want to ensure are done correctly and safely. There are several innovative ways to make homes tornado resistant, from building houses underground, utilizing geodesic domes on top of homes, and many more.
New homes are costly, so there is always some value in bringing an older home up to code. And remember that renovations don’t always have to be home-wide; sometimes, it’s just one room or area of your home that needs fixing up. So, whether you want to renovate from top to bottom or start small, there are many ways for you to create a tornado resistant house in New Orleans using little more than home renovation tips. You can contact Homednb to hire a reliable contractor to help you make your home tornado resistant in New Orleans.