Put the Shutters up! Take the Shutters down…

I was at a potential customer’s office, giving a demo when I noticed these two excellent newspaper comic’s taped to a wall. I took photos using the camera on my phone … but for this first one, found a better quality photo online

 

1) All about “removable” shutters, aren’t we?!!

 

2) What do you really really want for christmas?

(the text says “Oh, hi! … it’s only you. We were hoping the roofers were finally here to fix our hurricane damage.” 

 

Ha Ha Ha

Here’s to 12 week waiting periods for accordions and 6 week backlogs for inspections and multiple week waits for permits!!!

A timeline of Hurricanes and Shutters

Google just introduced a new “experimental” feature that can display a timeline of events/news/issues.

For example, you can view a timeline of Hurricanes that shows how many and what Hurricanes have hit land.

Also, check out the cool timeline of Hurricane Shutters. Wow a couple of articles from the 1970’s and 1980’s showing FEMA and some information about Hurricane Shutter Patents!!

 

Technorati Tags: Hurricane – Shutter – timeline

Seasonal Blogs

I’ve been trying to read online about various industry resources that publish information about the hurricane protection or the shutter industry and honestly, I haven’t found a lot of material.

The industry magazine seems like the best resource so far … and I guess the more hands-on the industry (c’mon, construction/permits/metals/panels/etc) the fewer the people who write from within or about the industry.

Sure, there are tons of resources about the hurricane’s themselves and about weather forecasting and insurance products and how to get help post-hurricane. But information realted to what kind of shutter to install, why to choose one product over another and who to ask the questions to … thats real scarce!

Also, most blogs pop up during the start of the hurricane season, and then slowly die out (case in point: this sun-sentinel.com blog, Miles O’Brien on CNN and this Slidell Hurricane Damage blog) after a season or two.
Do you know of any resources that can help and fill this gap?

World of Hurricane Protection Trade Show and Conference

This is the Hurricane Protection Expo week. The annual event is being held at the Tampa Convention Center on the 10th and 11th (from 10:30am to 4pm on Thursday and 10 am to 3:30pm on Friday). Whats on the schedule for this year?

• The Exhibit Hall will have booths displaying information and products and demonstrations from various vendor and industry associations (I will be at booth #514, HurricaneBOSS Hurricane Software … so drop by and say hi!)
• Lots of CEU accredited (and non-accredited) seminars (check the Expo website for more information).
• Interesting keynote speakers

This year, the focus seems to be on stabilizing the various building code deviants that have popped up over the last few hurricane seasons due to “we need it yesterday” planning by various agencies. I hope these seminars help bring clarity to the world of shutters, wind loads and building codes. So I would definitely recommend you to visit the expo and find out more about whats the latest and greatest in the Hurricane Protection Industry. Shutters, Accordions, Roll Downs, Roll Ups, Storm Panels, Impact Windows and Doors, new generators, water filtration products and building protection products will all be on display.

 

Technorati Tags: Hurricane – Expo – Conference – tampa