Why Protect Your Garage?

Unrecognized by most homeowners (and unfortunately the media as well) is the fact that the garage door is potentially the largest, weakest opening of a residential home's exterior envelope to a hurricane.

 

 Many people that are concerned about the safety of their homes and families in hurricane conditions (even those that pay thousands of dollars for window shutters and impact resistant windows) fail to take any precautions to properly secure their garage door. 

 

The Florida Alliance for Safe Homes has stated that "about 80 percent of residential hurricane wind damage starts with wind entry through the garage door." According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross in their booklet "Against the Wind - Protecting your Home from Hurricane Damage", the loss of the garage door was one of the four major factors in homes destroyed or damaged in Hurricane Andrew. 

 

As the American Red Cross warns, once the garage door goes, the full power of a hurricane enters the home, blowing off the roof and resulting in major damage to, if not complete destruction of, the home.