The natural world sometimes creates storms or natural disasters that may threaten property or lives alike, and these destructive acts are sometimes nicknamed “nature’s fury.” Hurricanes and tornadoes may blast apart buildings and flood an area, and a volcanic eruption may blanket an area in lava while an earthquake may shake apart buildings big and small. While there is no way to prevent or control these powerful acts of nature, meteorologists, geologists, and more are hard at work studying these phenomena so that buildings and people alike can be ready for them. Before a hurricane or a powerful tornado, a local population can be evacuated, and the buildings may be engineered to withstand floods, rain, strong winds, and wind-blown debris impacts.
This is when hurricane glass doors and hurricane glass windows may help out, and construction contractors may turn to sliding glass door manufacturers for supplies during a project. These sliding glass door manufacturers offer high impact glass doors and high impact windows that don’t break easily when hurricanes arrive, and that can prevent a lot of property damage. Homeowners probably won’t be the ones contacting these sliding glass door manufacturers, though; it is often construction crews building a condo or office building who deal with sliding glass door manufacturers. What should they be ready for?
The Power of Hurricanes
These enormous storms vary in power and size, but even the smaller ones are capable of great destruction once they arrive on land across the American east coast or the Caribbean. Meteorologists are hard at work studying these storms to better predict their size and timing, and that can bolster evacuation efforts. The numbers show that in the 20th century, a total of 158 hurricanes arrived on American land, and Florida alone endured 57 of them. These hurricanes may sometimes even spawn tornadoes, as Hurricane Andrew did in 1992 (62 total tornadoes created).
What is more, experts say that in the 21st century, hurricanes are becoming even more powerful and frequent, and many attribute that to climate change and a warming of the world’s oceans. At the very least, 2017 saw great heights in hurricane activity, as that year saw 10 different storms in a row form into full hurricanes (this has not happened since 1893, many years prior). In that same year, Hurricane Irma formed, and it ranks as the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record. This mammoth storm boasted 185 MPH winds and had a staggering seven trillion watts of energy, and this storm left many people in Bermuda homeless after it damaged or destroyed 90% of the island’s buildings. With these powerful storms arriving regularly, it is essential that buildings along the American east coast are ready to endure them, and sliding glass door manufacturers can help.
Getting Ready for a Hurricane
Buildings certainly cannot be evacuated along with their residents, but engineers and contractors can offer newer construction methods to help them survive a storm. Levees and elevated foundations help resist flood waters, and hurricane sliding doors and hurricane proof windows can help prevent interior property damage when a storm arrives. In any building, the windows and glass doors are a vulnerable point, but it is not an option to simply build a condo or hotel without them. Instead, contractors get wholesale supplies from sliding glass door manufacturers and window suppliers to install hurricane proof glass features. And when someone buys an older building, they may inspect all the hardware and determine whether the windows can endure hurricanes. If not, newer and more impact resistant windows can be fitted in with the help of contractors.
Such windows and sliding glass doors may have tough frames to help them endure strong winds and wind-blown debris, and they will also feature glaze to reinforce the glass itself. Windows and glass doors with a glaze system of +105/-130, for example, can withstand winds over 100 MPH in strength without breaking. This prevents broken glass, rain, and wind from blasting into a building during a hurricane, as a lot of property damage may be done otherwise. Wind-blown debris may bounce right off the windows rather than shatter them, preventing broken glass from getting everywhere.