12:31 PM CDT on Friday, May 19, 2006

By Dave Fehling / 11 News

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Hurricane season starts in two weeks.  Is your home ready?

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Researchers at Texas Tech University use a canon to shoot boards to replicate flying debris.

11 News’ Dave Fehling gives us all something to think about after what happened last year when over two million of evacuated the Houston area because of Hurricane Rita.

If your home can survive a hurricane, should you stay in it?

When asked if he was going to stay put, Charlie McMahon responded, “Absolutely.”

Charlie McMahon said he won’t evacuate.

“That’s one reason I built a totally brick house,” he said.

He’ll stay in his sturdy house near Katy, over 50 miles from the coast.

Not only is it all brick, it’s equipped with a device that is suppose to suck air out of the house as a hurricane hits, reducing the air pressure that can help lift off a roof.

Fehling: “And you think this may minimize the chance?

McMahon: “Makes sense.”

“Its called a Windworker,” said Jim Neidner, homebuilder.

Jim Neidner is a Houston homebuilder who not only has those Windworkers on his house, he also used double the number of city-required hurricane straps and clips.

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Windworkers are devices that are suppose to suck air out of a house as a hurricane hits, reducing the air pressure that can help lift off a roof.

“We put them on every stud,” he said.

The metal straps hold the roof to the top floor and the first floor to the foundation.

Yet, if another Rita headed our way?

“If we got a four or five hurricane, I’d probably leave the city just to be on the safe side,” Neidner said.  “Even though I’ve got all this.”

So what should you do?  Should you stay or should you go? 

Only you can make that decision because there are so many factors.  Like, if you’re in a storm surge area, you should go.  But what if you live miles from the coast?  Would you and your house survive?

To get an idea, 11 News flew to Lubbock so see how researchers at Texas Tech University figure out how much wind a building can take.

Researchers use a canon to shoot boards to replicate flying debris.

“In the range of 100, 120, 125 mph, you’re gonna start seeing stuff fly off your house,” Larry Tanner said .

Researchers Larry Tanner and John Schroeder not only do tests in their labs, they see the real thing.

“Attach it to the ground and flip the switch and walk away,” said Schroeder.

Before Rita hit East Texas last year they set up these wind gauges.  After the storm passed, the gauges told where winds were the worst and then researchers looked for which homes did the best.

“And those residential structures that had wind clips performed much better  than their sisters that weren’t similarly connected,” said Tanner.

They said the ideal combination is brick or stucco homes with the clips.

“A lot of times if you’re far enough inland, say for instance, north Houston, the Woodlands area.  If you can weather a week or so without electricity, the chances are you may be better to stay,” Schroeder said.

May be better, he said, but consider that even if your roof stays on and the walls stay intact, windows and garage doors could still blow out.

“Garage doors are big nemesis.  We’ll lose garage doors in fairly low speed events,” Tanner explained.

For that reason, the Texas Tech researchers have been a big advocate of storm shelters: a reinforced safe room inside a house.

“I think the widespread use of residential storm shelters could alleviate the problems of evacuations,” said Ernst Kiesling, Texas Tech.

But safe rooms are expensive to build.

And in Houston, “you know you’re going to be without power for weeks and weeks and sometimes months,” said Neidner.

Builder Jim Neidner wondered if residents would really want to be in the Houston area after a major hurricane.

“Who wants to be in a safe room with no power,” he said.

That is a good question and one more to consider when deciding whether to stay or go.