PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – If Hurricane Isaias and its too-close-for-comfort path near South Florida has you wondering if you should shutter up your home or condo, we wanted to know, too.
So, we asked our Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross.
What do you say, Bryan?
“If it were me, now this is just if it were me, and I were living right on the coast in Broward, especially in northern Broward County, and putting them up wasn’t dangerous, I would close my shutters if I were living on the coast north of Fort Lauderdale.”
Norcross said the best thing to do is to evaluate your situation and do what makes you feel comfortable.
He stressed that it is a good precaution, but only if your shutters are the type that are easy to access, such as pull shutters or roll down shutters.
“Putting certain shutters up are more dangerous sometimes than the gusts themselves,” Norcross said. Generally, for people that have to put up panel shutters, they could probably forego doing so with this storm.”
If your shutters are easily accessible and able to be closed, you can do that in the morning on Saturday.
"That's when you will see the wind picking up from the East," Norcross said.
So, those living along the coast in Broward County, especially in northern Broward County, north of Fort Lauderdale and up to Deerfield Beach, can be better safe than sorry and shutter up for Isaias.
There’s no hard and fast rule about shuttering up your home — it is not set in stone and it is whatever a person feels will most protect them and their assets. So, bottom line, it’s a matter of choice.
Remember, too, to remove anything that could easily be picked up and taken by a strong wind gust such as lawn or patio furniture. These are the types of items that can do damage not only to your windows, but to neighboring structures.
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