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Hurricane IAN was the 5th strongest hurricane to ever hit America.

Background on this video

Hurricane IAN was the 5th strongest hurricane to ever hit America. It is estimated that the damage will exceed 100 BILLION dollars. There were 149 Florida deaths due to IAN.

Hart and June Kelly (Atlas Armor customers) are from Miami Florida. They built their first home in Homestead just south of Miami. In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew (Cat 5) came through and totally destroyed their home. They then moved to a small island just west of Sanibel called Cayo Costa and built their 2nd home.

Several years later in August of 2004 Hurricane Charlie (Cat 4) took out their 2nd home. They liked the area and decided to build their 3rd home at the end of a cannel in the town of Bokeelia located on the north end of Peanut Island, just west across the bay from Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. During construction, they purchased 10 of our Atlas Armor screens to protect their patios. In October of 2022, hurricane IAN (Cat 4) followed the same path as hurricane Charlie coming across Cayo Costa and then right up the cannel leading directly to the Kelly’s home. As IAN came closer, the Kelly’s learned that they may have a 16-18 foot storm surge which would come up to the middle of their second floor – they had no choice but to leave their home. Before leaving to take shelter on the mainland of Florida, they pushed the down button on all of their Atlas Armor screens and hoped that the screens would hold against the storm. As they drove away, they were resigned to the possibility that yet another total loss could occur on their 3rd home. The 16-foot storm surge fortunately never happened, but their home was caught in the eyewall of IAN for over 10 continuous hours. IAN’s off shore winds were clocked at 150 mph (7 mph short of a Cat 5 hurricane). After IAN passed and it was safe to return back to their home, they had to drive on the only road servicing their island and home where they drove passed totally destroyed homes, the little town of Matlacha with its colorful shops mostly destroyed, and huge sections of broken or ripped apart trees lay everywhere. When they finally got to their home, they found some of their large trees were badly damaged, but the inside of their home exactly as they left it. Totally untouched. The Atlas Armor hurricane screens held tight during the storm resulting in ZERO home damage. June Kelly said “nothing had even moved on their patios”.

This video also shows a video taken during the storm by another Atlas Armor customer that lives in the Burnt Store Marina located onshore in the town of Burnt Store. Again no damage to our Atlas Armor screens or to their property but they reported other hurricane screens failed (blew out of their tracks) in the same complex and on the same side of their building. Further inland in the town of Arcadia, we have a several hundred screens installed on vacation homes (Casita) purchased by Recreational Vehicle (RV) owners. Their bus sized RV’s generally cost $M+ so the owners can afford the best and want the best. Our contractor/dealer reported receiving a large number of phone calls after Ian went through telling him that they are very thankful that he only used the best products in his construction. This complex was again in the eyewall for over 8 hours in 140+mph winds with ZERO failures. Our screens work. Other screens in that same complex did not.

Aftermath: While 1,000’s of other hurricane screen products blew out or their side tracks or had their seams split or came out of their weight bars during hurricane IAN, Atlas Armor was the only hurricane screen that had ZERO (0) failures.

Non-Atlas Armor Screen Replacement Policy:

All of the other hurricane screen failures resulted in their manufacturers charging their customers again to replace their screen panels. When the manufacturer was told that the screens failed customers reported that they only heard “Sorry, our screens failed, but here’s how much it will cost you to get another one .”

Understand that the replacement screen is made just like the one that failed. Will this annuity replacement process be required after every hurricane? The replacement screens are not cheap. Each replacement screen will cost thousands of dollars based on the size. The fabric panel is generally about a third of the cost of the installed entire screen. Even if your insurance company pays for the screen, your insurance policy will most likely increase your policy cost to cover the cost of the claim or it will be terminated and YOU wind up footing the bill for the screen failure. The end customer will wind up paying thousands of dollars to replace something that should never have happened.

Atlas Armor Screen Replacement Policy:

At Atlas Armor, we have a term for screens damaged by wind (blowing out of their frames or splitting their seam splitting) and that term is Manufacturer Design Defect (MDD). The screen that blew out had a defective engineering design that allowed the fabric to leave the supportive side tracks, weight bar or split at its seams. As part of our written Atlas Armor warranty, Atlas will replace or repair any screen suffering from wind damage (MDD) for FREE. Dealers will still charge for any service labor and delivery fees and applicable import duties where needed.

Note: Atlas Armor’s thousands of installed screens have neither come out of their tracks nor had their seams split. Atlas Armor screens have been real-world-tested for the past 10-years, by 20 hurricanes and 17 tropical storms.

If an Atlas Armor screen is damaged by something other than wind during the storm, that’s different and will be considered hurricane damaged and the screen will not be replaced for free. If, however, the damaged screen can be can be repaired, Atlas may repair the screen for FREE, but it’s at Atlas Armor’s sole discretion as to how each screen will be handled. Free replacements and repairs only refer to the fabric and not to any damaged metal such as hoods.