A hurricane-related question: If your house were surrounded by trees...

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

...and a hurricane was coming/battering your area, would you sleep upstairs in your bedrooms? Or would you try to keep everyone downstairs onto the ground level? What if that ground level room had big sliding glass doors?

 

I'm trying to think about what we'll do if the storm hits here as bad as the meteorologists are predicting. Our huge oaks are sturdy, but they are old, and it's not hard to imagine a big branch coming down on the house. And we are literally surrounded by trees: two oaks in the front, one on the back/side, a slew of narrow-trunked but tall evergreens in the backyard and neighbor's side yard, etc.

 

So WWYD? :bigear:

[TammyS]

I feel for you. We live under a ginormous tree. If it goes down, it would take our house out.

 

Keep people downstairs if the winds get too bad. The sliding glass door, hang blankets over it, they will keep the glass from flying in, should a branch take it out.:grouphug:

[Denisemomof4]

we have two HUGE trees in the front (old oaks left when land was cleared) and a million around our house but I think they're too far away.

 

We'd sleep in the room out back or the basement. Do you have a basement?

 

You know that after posting this now you're going to have to let us know you're ok when it's all done, right?

[Belacqua]

We opted to sleep downstairs during our last big windstorm (not so severe as a hurricane, but pretty strong winds) because we, too, have lots of very large trees surrounding the house. It probably wasn't necessary, but it made me feel better.

[athena1277]

Is it possible to board up the glass doors? Be sure to bring in anything outside that is not tied down, including big stuff like patio tables. You do not want a patio chair flying through that door or a window. Have you considered going to a friend or relatives house if it starts looking like your area is going to take the worst hit?

 

Can you tell I grew up on the Gulf Coast?:tongue_smilie:

[shanvan]

We opted to sleep downstairs during our last big windstorm (not so severe as a hurricane, but pretty strong winds) because we, too, have lots of very large trees surrounding the house. It probably wasn't necessary, but it made me feel better.

 

We did the same during the last hurricane. A week or so before there was a heavy thunderstorm with strong winds that brought down a tree on a boy in a neighboring state. He was killed by it. No way I was letting Ds sleep in his room directly under the huge maple in the back yard. We all slept in sleeping bags in the front rooms of our house, which are furthest away from trees. Our basement is too yuck to sleep in.

[tabrizia]

Downstairs with a blanket taped over the window in case of broken glass. We don't have a ton of trees here, but I figure if it gets really bad we're still all going to the basement, we'll tape up the sliding glass window and have a campout in the playroom.

[Susan C.]

Can you sleep downstairs, maybe in a center room away from windows? A hallway would work too.

 

Is you house brick or vinyl siding? I've seen trees fall on a brick home, they lay on the house more and don't go through the house as much one would with a vinyl siding home. We had a brick home in SE Virginia (moved away) and it took a tree in Isabell. Neighbors sent pictures with the tree laying on the house, it may have broken through a little, but people inside would have been ok.

 

Really large trees would probably go through both. I would probably sleep better downstairs.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Susan C.

[Guest inoubliable]

We'll be downstairs. We do that with any bad storm, usually. We have a ginormous old tree in our backyard that completely covers our entire house. Really. You can't see our house on Google maps because the tree covers it completely.

 

Last year, we had a freak snowstorm in October. A window that was already cracked blew out. There was a steel cable connecting one of the larger parts of the tree to the main trunk. That snapped. One year later and the window is still covered in tape and the landlord STILL won't have his tree guy come out and re-wire that tree out back.

 

Feeling very very good about having renter's insurance. :rolleyes:

[Spryte]

Downstairs.

 

During our last big storm, DH's cousin went upstairs to get his daughters out of their shared room, and they all slept downstairs. An hour later a huge limb crashed straight through the window and landed in his youngest DD's bed. We are all very grateful she was not in it!

[KungFuPanda]

I'd sleep downstairs. This was just a year ago. The tree was healthy and fell after the storms due to ground saturation. The corner it hit was the ONLY corner that isn't someone's bedroom. I had JUST come out of that bathroom about 10 minutes before the tree hit.

 

[Elisabeth in IL]

Oh my! I'm glad you were ok!!

[Seasider]

Went through Hurricane Charlie and saw century oaks completely uprooted and down across cars and houses. Without a doubt, we'd be sleeping on the ground floor (assuming no basement). Blanket and maybe a plastic shower curtain can cover the glass slider, just set up camp across the room from it.

 

Hope all your concerns and preparations are for naught...:grouphug:

[Seasider]

I'd sleep downstairs. This was just a year ago. The tree was healthy and fell after the storms due to ground saturation. The corner it hit was the ONLY corner that isn't someone's bedroom. I had JUST come out of that bathroom about 10 minutes before the tree hit.

 

 

Yikes! That is scary! (And I see your downstairs slider was apparently undamaged...)

[Mavis]

We sleep downstairs too. My house is surrounded by many tall trees. Its also hard to sleep during a storm when things land on the roof or during heavy rain.

[Carrie12345]

We'll likely all move into one of the kids' rooms downstairs. We don't have any HEAVY trees, relatively speaking, but we just realized how tall many of our skinny trees have gotten over the past 7 years. We never used to give our twerpy trees a second thought!

 

Our main living area is almost all glass and no second floor or attic, so that's out!

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Definitely downstairs, in the center most room, and stay together.

[chiguirre]

We sleep downstairs as far away from windows as possible. You should also cover your windows or at least tape them. If you don't already have emergency water and food stocks, shop now. As the storm gets closer, stores sell out of bottled water, batteries and the yummier canned foods. Check to see where the evacuation zones and routes are, and if it's likely you'll have to go, get your car packed up and on the road early. You do not want to be in a hurricane on the road. If you're not in an evacuation zone, prepare to hunker down. It's awful (and can be deadly) to have to spend 20 hours in the car to get 100 miles inland. Do everyone a favor and stay put if you're not in immediate danger from storm surge. You can leave later once they clear the roads if you'll be without power for a long time.

 

Good luck!

[Trish]

...and a hurricane was coming/battering your area, would you sleep upstairs in your bedrooms? Or would you try to keep everyone downstairs onto the ground level? What if that ground level room had big sliding glass doors?

 

I'm trying to think about what we'll do if the storm hits here as bad as the meteorologists are predicting. Our huge oaks are sturdy, but they are old, and it's not hard to imagine a big branch coming down on the house. And we are literally surrounded by trees: two oaks in the front, one on the back/side, a slew of narrow-trunked but tall evergreens in the backyard and neighbor's side yard, etc.

 

So WWYD? :bigear:

 

A Cat I isn't going to threaten your sliding glass doors. But if the trees are above your house they could easily penetrate your roof. I vote for sleeping downstairs.

[elegantlion]

I wouldn't sleep upstairs. We had two hurricanes in 3 weeks a few years ago. The first one we boarded up the house and evacuated , the next one we were too road weary to leave. Our house was surrounded by several huge pine trees. We all slept in the living room, the most central room in the house, it was ranch. It was a long night.

[momofkhm]

...and a hurricane was coming/battering your area, would you sleep upstairs in your bedrooms? Or would you try to keep everyone downstairs onto the ground level? What if that ground level room had big sliding glass doors?

 

I'm trying to think about what we'll do if the storm hits here as bad as the meteorologists are predicting. Our huge oaks are sturdy, but they are old, and it's not hard to imagine a big branch coming down on the house. And we are literally surrounded by trees: two oaks in the front, one on the back/side, a slew of narrow-trunked but tall evergreens in the backyard and neighbor's side yard, etc.

 

So WWYD? :bigear:

 

When this happened to us (hurricane coming and big trees) we slept downstairs. And we'd do it again if one came here (different house). When Fran hit, it did take out a tree n our back yard. Thankfully, it fell away from the house. Which was really interesting since every.other.tree on the block fell the opposite direction. I guess that was a God thing!

[jujsky]

...and a hurricane was coming/battering your area, would you sleep upstairs in your bedrooms? Or would you try to keep everyone downstairs onto the ground level? What if that ground level room had big sliding glass doors?

 

I'm trying to think about what we'll do if the storm hits here as bad as the meteorologists are predicting. Our huge oaks are sturdy, but they are old, and it's not hard to imagine a big branch coming down on the house. And we are literally surrounded by trees: two oaks in the front, one on the back/side, a slew of narrow-trunked but tall evergreens in the backyard and neighbor's side yard, etc.

 

So WWYD? :bigear:

 

I was in that exact situation (walk-out basement with sliders and all) last time we had a big ice storm. After some minimal damage to our house during the previous ice storm and the knowledge that our trees had been weakened by the 2 previous ice storms, we did sleep in the basement that night. It wasn't as comfortable, but we did feel safer.

 

We had all the big pines cut down since then, and there are only 2 big trees (oaks) in close enough proximity to our house to worry about damage. I sleep a lot better now!

[lisabees]

Our house is next to the woods. We'll be sleeping downstairs tonight. ;)

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[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Holy s***! :001_huh:

 

:iagree: Wow! Kung Fu! Scary!

 

I'd sleep downstairs, as far away from the sliders as possible, with something covering the glass.

 

My prayers are with everyone in the path of this storm.