When Hurricane Laura struck the Louisiana-Texas coastline in late August, the property damage was devastating. In particular, the town of Lake Charles was hit hard. The symbol for the hurricane’s power and destruction was the town’s 22-story Capitol One building. The building had suffered serious damage during Hurricane Rita in 2005. And, now, 15 years later it was severely damaged again, with about half the building’s windows blown out. Fortunately, the building was empty and there were no injuries from the flying glass.

Lake Charles’ Mayor Nic Hunter told a local TV station that the building “looks like Swiss cheese.”

Unfortunately, Hurricane Laura appears not to be a fluke storm that happens once a decade or so, as was the case previously. Already in 2020 there have been 23 named storms, the seconds most on record. Moving forward, weather forecasters and scientists are predicting more volatile hurricanes, tornadoes and other foul weather events in the coming years related to climate changes.

What this means for office building owners is the need to protect their buildings, including making sure their glass is secured so it doesn’t shatter, causing serious injuries and death to building occupants or people on the street below.

The best way to protect windows in office buildings in parts of the country threatened by hurricanes, tornadoes and other foul weather events is to install security window film, also known as shatter resistant window film and fragment retention window film.

These films are most often installed to the inside of windows – sometimes with a wet glaze attachment system. The result is the glass will hold firm during hurricanes, tornadoes or any catastrophic event – saving lives and money for the building owner.

With the uptick in significant storms in recent years there are many examples of buildings have their windows blown out.  As a result, glass protection has become a high-priority for building owners.

Building owners, property managers, architects and general contractors seeking the best way to protect windows in their building need to locate an experienced security window film installer with a particular expertise in shatter resistant window films.