Hey Wout -

My home is, in fact, constructed of cinderblock and cement with terrazo flooring and a tongue-in-groove decked roof. The home was built in 1959 and has withstood many many storms. Generally, after a storm, you shovel out the sand, hose everything off, and you're good for the next one. We wanted, though, to have a more finished look inside the home and had the cement walls covered in sheetrock. The interior and roof covering (140-mph-rated 90-pound-weight rubber covered with tar and white gravel) are not nearly as storm resistant as the floors and walls. Many of the newly constructed buildings that have sprung up around us, built to modern hurricane code, are the first buildings to come apart in a storm. I have a five-foot-high pile of my neighbor's house on my back porch from Dennis last month. Have codes improved survivability? Not to my mind. Low, unobtrusive, concrete homes have outlasted the rest.

Off to the store to pick up some more plywood. ugh.