Hurricane Sandy: A Story of Survival

A family, their beloved pets and the home that saved their lives.

[sharihenry]

WOW I watched the video of a family who was recording the hurricane, And saw the waves smashing into the back of their home and I said to myself, They are very brave to do this and be so calm about it .And it was your video.After watching this. I think everyone that lives near any type of tidal water should build their home like this. I live 20 minutes away from Union Beach and drove through there a couple days after the storm and it was total devastation.Thank God your family and pets, And everyone there made it out alive, I am a member of the Spotswood American Legion and have friends from the Union Beach American Legion which was a total loss. Hopefully they will rebuild and will be strong again!!! Post by Spotswood Richie

[jerrykass]

How do you do plumbing and wiring and related repairs and additions with concrete walls? I built a home on the shore pre-Sandy with an 8 foot high reinforced concrete foundation that served as a 2.5 car garage and basement and the rest was 2X6 construction with hurricane ties, etc and the home was one of only 2 homes on the block that had less than $1, 000 in total damage to the home. The village originally fought me on it for 6 months as they thought it wouldn't look good, but I won. After it was built and pre-Sandy they loved it, gave me an award (appeared in a local paper) and offered me a spot on the planning and zoning boards.

[colechapman]

I was still in high school at this time and My town was not by the shore. It was 45 minutes from Downtown Manhattan in Bergen County. Despite this, we still lost power for several weeks and had downed trees everywhere. Flooding was a big issue too. Even my town's Highschool track was inundated with water. My parents house was up on a hill, so thankfully we didn't suffer much flooding. It was the wildest storm that I lived through and i still remember the winds noise all these years later

[augustreil]

Simple question. How do you keep the roof, shingles etc from blowing apart ?

[UnknownGuest]

I was 12-13 years old when this happened I honestly don't know what happened still collecting information about the Storm

[MEMEFACE]

Me and my family lived in midtown when we were in mahatan I was two months old and the power was off and the roof almost fell of i was two months when it happened

[otto]

Good job on ICF house. Unfortunately most Americans will go with contractor who;s offer is $3 doll less to build it, out of substandard materials, but make sure it looks good .

[metekavruk_Alanya]

We use only concrete for ages. There are of course bad sides too if you do not be carefull.

#1 enemy to concrete is water. When two meets together concrete will crack and leak water. Bad isolation of foundation will cause water climb up, specially basement floors will get wet and throw paint and any plaster layer off. You will always have dark green colors on walls and will smell terrible. Water leakage and dump also may occur around window frames even if you sealed them tight. Roof is also very important. Bad roof will bring dump at top floor and ceiling. Plastic sealers must be refreshed when their time comes. You have good external wall isolation which is perfect.

A concrete house will always move because of it's weight so your base soil and foundation both must be rigid. There are many luxury houses cracking from middle because of bad foundation, bad reinforcing. But small movements are normal as long as there is no cracks on main critical structure - no panic. Also wall bricks seperation from concrete structure may occur and is normal if happens once, repeating ones mean trouble. In this video i see soil is wet because of sea level so bad construction will definately cause the problems i mentioned above.

You can not drill big holes on pillars as it will cause loose in rigidity and never cut any reinforcement steel bar for renovation. You should not remove a pillar.

Plumbing, wiring etc must be preplanned before pouring the concrete because cutting main structure later randomly may cause troubles. Engineers must design routes and agree with you. Spend time on planning. Wirings will go through plastic pipes buried in concrete or wall bricks so plan it earlier and TAKE A COPY OF ELECTRICITY AND PLUMBING PROJECT.

A concrete structure will age in time depending on quality and conditions. A bad structure will show defects say in 10 - 20 years, a good one will last for 30-60 years. More floors mean more pillars, beams and so more stress on structure. Old buildings may have linear cracks and fall of concrete off in some parts. Humidity also is a reason for this.Experts must check the latest condition and decide on necessary fixes. If steel reinforcements become visible then do not insist on saving the house, just destroy it because it is already dead.

I am a real estate agent - not an engineer so please ask your engineer questions for more accurate info.There are many types of concrete chemical with different characteristics.

[darthvader]

Ever heard of Smeaton cement mortar and when gravel is added it is transformed into Smeaton concrete? Mortar is when a cement binder is only mixed with sand. But when one adds gravel to the mortar mix before adding water, then only then it becomes concrete. The Smeaton mortar base at the abandoned foundation is still as good as new AND UNAFFECTED BY SEAWATER AND BY THE COASTAL MARINE CONDITIONS. It was only abandoned because the natural rock foundation below it was being eroded by the Atlantic waves pounding against it for 200 to 300 years. It is a mixture of equal volumes of 1 part slaked lime + 1 part powdered blast furnace iron slag + 1 part clay powder. The powdered blast furnace iron slag is pulverized, crushed, grinded, and milled to be as fine as baby powder or face powder or bleached white flour powder and at that stage of ultrafiness it will dissolve in water just like the slaked lime powder and clay powder.That Smeaton cement binder mixture is then mixed with sand and gravel at a volume of a ratio of 1 part Smeaton cement binder + 2 parts sand + 4 parts gravel. Smeaton cement binder is also a hydraulic cement that hardens and cures underwater and undersea water. At least that Smeaton cement binder has been time-tested and time-proven for 200 to 300 years!

[darthvader]

The styrofoam should had been replaced with aerate AAC concrete foam pre-mixed with wollastonite to make it more ductile and even make it even better than styrofoam which is plastic. And the concrete mix must be pre-mixed with either 33.33 degrees angle double twisted steel fibers that are 33 twistings long or with helix steel fibers to doubly reinforce the concrete together with conventional steel rebars. The weakest spot of any steel fiber reinforced concrete are in the in between liquid pourings because their steel fibers are not intertwined and interlocking continously with each other if the pouring is not continuously monolithic and non-stop until all the molds are filled and fitted with powerful mold vibrators. Especially the weakest spot when the next liquid pouring is poured on an already solidified portion of the steel fibers reinforced concrete that prevents the steel fibers of the solidified steel fiber reinforced concrete and the steel fibers reinforced freshly poured concrete from intertwining and interlocking with each other. This the need for conventional steel rebars reinforcement with conventional rebar spacing modified to accommodate the steel fibers to flow between them and around them with the aid of concrete superplasticizers and powerful aquare shaped concrete probe vibrators and concrete mold vibrators.

[callieyates]

I wish I hade a concreec house to survive a tornado just kidding im in alimogordo

[johnLjelks]

If erosion undercut just 1 concrete wall or corner, that house would have fallen under its own weight.

[oussamahijazy]

D'ont play with God And me=75 billion $ damages

[oussamahijazy]

D'ont play with God And me=75 billion $ damages