“Nature’s fury,” as they call it, describes any act of nature that is highly destructive, both to the natural environment and to human settlements. A volcano might erupt and spread hot lava and ash everywhere, while an earthquake can rattle an entire city. Tornadoes and hurricanes, meanwhile, are among the most destructive storms on the planet, and they can cause a lot of expensive damage with rain, floods, hail, and wind. Fortunately, meteorologists are always hard at work studying and tracking these storms, which allows them to release storm warnings. This, in turn, makes accurate evacuation efforts possible, and that can save lives. At the very least, people in the affected area can take shelter indoors.
But what about the buildings, which cannot be evacuated? If a storm strikes, that building must be built to survive, as is often the case. This includes windows and sliding glass doors, which are often a liability if not built correctly. So, even luxury sliding glass doors can be built with high impact glass, and the same is true of hurricane resistant windows. These impact windows and luxury sliding glass doors can make all the difference.
On Hurricanes
Just how powerful are these storms? Even low-category hurricanes are powerful and boast winds, rain, and hail that can cause a lot of damage. Overall, statistics show that in the 20th century, a total of 158 hurricanes struck the United States, and 57 of them arrived in Florida in particular. Among these was Hurricane Andrew, which struck in 1992 and caused a lot of damage. In fact, Hurricane Andrew spawned 62 different tornadoes, and some other hurricanes have been known to create tornadoes, too.
Data suggests that now, in the early 21st century, hurricanes are becoming even more powerful and frequent, possibly due to climate change and a warming of the world’s oceans. Evidence of this may be Hurricane Irma, which arrived in 2017 and stands as the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record. This incredible storm boasted seven trillion watts of energy, and it had 185 MPH winds for 37 hours. It devastated 90% of the buildings in Barbuda and left 60% of the people there homeless, not to mention damage to Puerto Rico. Hurricanes of this caliber may very well strike again, so engineers are working hard to make buildings that can resist such power.
Making Luxury Sliding Glass Doors and Windows Resistant to Storms
It is not an option for buildings along the east coast to simply omit window and doors entirely to keep hurricane winds out. But then again, windows and luxury sliding glass doors are a weak point, so a compromise must be made. This is why contractors in Miami and similar areas will order high impact glass windows and doors from the right manufacturers, and install them in buildings. These windows and doors do not break easily when hurricane winds or wind blown debris strikes them, and that can help keep the interior safer. Otherwise, broken windows would admit the wind and rain, and scatter broken glass everywhere. That could threaten lives and greatly damage property.
How is this done? A high impact window or luxury sliding glass doors with a glaze system of +105/-130 can endure winds over 100 MPH in strength without breaking, and some wind blown debris might bounce right off of them. These models may be fairly typical for new buildings in Miami being built, such as skyscrapers, hotels, apartments, and the like. Often, it is construction crews for large, tall buildings who order a lot of these high impact windows and luxury sliding glass doors models to resist hurricane winds.
And of course, when a business owner purchases an older building in hurricane prone areas, they may want to check over all the windows and sliding glass doors on the premises (along with other routine inspections). If the windows and doors are very old, damaged, or don’t fit well, they may break during a hurricane. So, the owner may hire crews to remove them and install the latest, toughest models of high impact windows and luxury sliding glass doors. This may certainly pay off when and if a storm strikes.
