Regional insights
Florida is four different storm states
HVHZ rules, salt exposure, historic districts, storm surge — every Florida region faces a different mix. National advice misses what actually matters here.
~2.7M residents
Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade sits inside Florida's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ), the strictest wind region in the country. Anything installed here — from a single shutter to a full impact window package — must carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA), not just a Florida Product Approval. Salt spray off Biscayne Bay and constant humidity also wear on hardware faster than most homeowners expect.
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~1.9M residents
Broward County
Broward is also inside HVHZ, but the housing stock skews differently than Miami-Dade — more single-story ranch homes, more canal frontage, and a much larger inventory of 1970s–80s construction that was never engineered for modern code. That mix changes which protection makes sense.
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~1.5M residents
Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County still falls under HVHZ along the coast and shifts to standard Florida Building Code further inland. The difference matters: a home in West Palm needs different product approvals than one in Wellington or Loxahatchee. Historic-district homes add another layer.
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~1.2M residents
Southwest Florida
Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sanibel, and Naples have a fundamentally different storm exposure than the Atlantic coast. Storm surge — not just wind — drives the worst losses, and post-Ian rebuilding has reshaped what "good protection" means here.
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