Ind: Buying a storm-proof home in the Caribbean

Buying a storm-proof home in the Caribbean

Developers are making radical changes to properties to protect them
from natural disasters, says Graham Norwood

The Independent
Published: 02 November 2005

Nature shows no respect for holiday home idylls, as Hurricane Wilma's
trail of havoc through the Caribbean and the Florida Keys has shown -
but it is at least possible for architects and designers to minimise
the threat of destruction.

Take for example the Shoreline development on Grand Bahama, a gated
estate of 76 properties adjacent to a large resort. Like all up-market
homes in prestigious international tourist areas, these enjoy the usual
facilities of swimming pools, tennis courts, clubhouses and
restaurants. Most importantly of all for buyers who are paying from
$625,000 (=A3343,000) to $2.5m (=A31.3m) per home, they have a prime
location - in this case with views of the island's famous Fortune
beach.

But while this position makes each home a holiday paradise, it also
puts it in the front line of any future hurricane. Therefore the
developers have raised the houses on concrete columns to 14ft above sea
level and have driven the columns of each property at least three feet
into the beachside rock. The ground floor is a steelreinforced concrete
slab roughly six inches thick, giving a solid base on which
hurricane-proof steel frames are placed. Attached to these are layers
of specially treated plywood and "moisture membranes".

All windows are produced from reinforced PVC with hurricane glass
panes; all cavities between interior and exterior walls, in under floor
areas and roof spaces have been reinforced as well as insulated.

Most Caribbean islands have in recent years insisted that homes have
"tie-downs" - metal straps across roofs, especially gable ends, to keep
them attached to the walls. Sometimes tie-downs are used across walls
and floors, too, to keep them attached to foundations. Some more
expensive homes are even "wrapped" in a thin skin of Kevlar, the stuff
that flak-jackets are made from and which is lightweight but still
stronger than steel.

Estate agents selling properties in areas hit by natural disasters are
sanguine, but not complacent. "Most people just need reassurance. The
whole [Caribbean] region gets hit by hurricanes in some form pretty
much every year and the countries and properties are geared up for it"
says James Barnes of Newfound Property International, which began
selling properties on Antigua just as Hurricane Ivan hit it in autumn
2004.

In nearby St Lucia, a new development of buy-to-let apartments in a
beach resort called Discovery, is targetting British and Irish
investment buyers. It is located on what has hitherto been a "safe"
area of the island, away from likely hurricane impact, but even so
developer Doubloon International is taking no chances in the building
of the flats.

"Their external appearance, which makes them look like simple wooden
structures, belies the way they are constructed. The timber exterior
covers a very strong concrete shell supported by solid foundations,
some of which include reinforced concrete piles of at least 30ft," says
Doubloon managing director John Verity.

Buyers of the properties - two bedroom units start at $630,000
(=A3346,000) - will see that roof beams are lashed down with hurricane
straps with cast concrete beams loaded over the top, while reinforced
shutters adorn the windows. Because much of the damage caused by a
typical hurricane comes from rainfall and flooding rather than the
wind, a special drainage system rapidly shifts water away from the
resort.

There is also a back-up drinking water supply for five days and
extensive standby electricity generating capacity. All of this is in
compliance with the Caribbean Uniform Building Code (CUBIC) which
insists on designs capable of withstanding storms of up to 130mph on St
Lucia.

Some homes in Florida now also have special hurricane flood diversion
systems, created by the addition of a two-feet thick concrete perimeter
wall buried in the soil just outside the foundation, which is designed
to prevent flood water washing away the home's base. Some developers
are also now including only minimal landscaping in developments as a
result of last year's storms where much of the damage to property was
caused by flying trees, uprooted by winds.

The American Red Cross has even issued guidelines to housebuilders
about "bracing" garage doors - the part of a property most likely to
collapse first in a hurricane, according to research.

These new standards, increasingly common in new homes in the Caribbean
and South America as well as in the US, are becoming better known to
buyers now.

Terry Hawkins, a property consultant in Florida - which has taken the
brunt of Hurricane Wilma and was hit by four hurricanes in 2004 - says:
"Damage to properties built in the past few years has been minimal
compared with older ones. Before the hurricanes, re-sales of older
homes were snapped up in a matter of days. Now these properties are
staying on the market longer."

The financial importance of developers winning public confidence is
immense.

According to estate agent Knight Frank, demand for overseas property
rocketed 95 per cent in the decade to 2003 and the firm predicts that
it will rise by 10 per cent year-on-year for the indefinite future.
Increasingly far-flung locations such as North America, the Pacific Rim
and the Caribbean - where extreme weather is commonplace - are gaining
in popularity with British buyers.

Partly this is because they offer guaranteed sun and relatively
low-cost properties, and partly because places such as Barbados are
losing traditional industries like sugar production and are instead
promoting global tourism in countries like Britain to provide their
future income.

The public is clearly aware of the dangers of extreme weather; for
example, tourist levels and holiday home purchases on Phuket, off the
coast of southern Thailand, are still below average despite the island
having suffered relatively light damage from the tsunami on Boxing Day
last year.

But developers in vulnerable regions are working to placate fears and
minimise risks, emphasising that buyers should not be deterred. They
say freak weather can hit anywhere, not just in hurricane regions -
just ask second home owners in the Cornish village of Boscastle.