It’s approaching the middle of June, and the Atlantic hurricane season is upon us. Virtually every organization that predicts seasonal activity expects a very active season given sea surface temperature conditions and the transition to La Nina. While many people approach hurricane season with a sense of concern, Josh Morgerman, a self-proclaimed hardcore hurricane chaser, awaits with anticipation. His team’s website says, “Armed with maps, instruments, video camera, experience, chutzpah, and the ever-present craving—and working with a team of awesome dudes—I intercept hurricanes approaching coastlines in North America and East Asia.” Morgerman’s goal is to seek out the violent inner core of these storms and “record the experience.” However, this story documents a different spin (see what I did there?) on Morgerman’s story - his new hurricane-resilient home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. I spoke with Morgerman about the motivation for his “hurricane house” and what others can learn from it.
By day, Morgerman, the Harvard-educated scholar, is an executive with a digital advertising agency that he co-founded in L.A. However, his appetite for the sheer power of hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones is insatiable. He feeds it through his iCyclone hardcore chasing team. Though not formally trained as a meteorologist, Morgerman has chased over 75 tropical cyclones including Hurricane Dorian (2019) and Typhoon Haiyan (2013). These are not little rainstorms. They are two of the strongest tropical systems recorded in the modern era. Morgerman has called Dorian the most intense cyclone of his career. He actually measured a pressure of 913.4 millibars and spent much of his time sheltering in a car.
Given these experiences, I recently spoke with Josh Morgerman about why he decided to build his hurricane home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The answer was fairly simple, geography. Mississippi is approximately the halfway point to chase hurricanes by car from Texas to the Carolinas. Morgerman, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, has focused most of his chasing in the U.S. and Mexico. The sleepy Gulf region town is very different from his northeastern U.S. and later west coast roots, but it was fertile ground for iCyclone operations.
Morgerman started spending his summers in the region but ultimately decided to plant roots there. As we ended our conversation, Morgerman told me that he would “ride out a Cat 5 hurricane in his new home.” Let’s rewind the story from that statement. While reluctant to call his new home “hurricane proof,” he said that it was certainly quite hurricane resistant. In fact, it is a Gold FORTIFIED home. What’s that? According to the fortifiedhome.org website, “The fortified construction method is a voluntary construction standard backed by decades of research, that your roofing contractor or builder can use to help protect your home against severe weather.” The program was established by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. There are three levels of certification: Bronze, Silver, or Gold. The ULI Developing Urban Resilience website says, “The Bronze level focuses on roof strength and resistance to wind. Silver requires reinforcement of the roof, adding use of impact-resistant windows and doors. Gold addresses the first two levels and further requires a ‘continuous load path,’ ensuring that buildings are adequately load-bearing and secured to the ground.”
The resiliency with Morgerman’s home is not exclusively tied to the structure. Two benchmark hurricanes, Camille (1969) and Katrina (2005), shaped his building philosophy. Because the region has experienced such catastrophic Category 5 storms, Morgerman knows that his home will face the full range of nature’s hurricane fury at times. He acknowledged, “when it comes to storm surge basically no place in coastal Mississippi is 100% safe.” The combination of shallow water and lack of big hills drives that statement.
Morgerman chose Old Town in Bay St. Louis. While it still has views of the Gulf of Mexico, it is still a block and half from the water and nineteen feet above sea level. His neighbors said that Camille brought about one foot of surge to the neighborhood. Katrina, which brought the highest storm surge on record in the Western Hemisphere, wiped out most of the block. According to a National Weather Service website, “The highest and most devastating storm surge was recorded in the Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian, MS areas where storm surge heights approached 28 feet.” So why would Morgerman decide to build there? He said, “If you want to live in coastal Mississippi, it is about managed risk.” He went on to say, “I am cool with this level of risk, a 300-to-500 year storm surge event like Katrina.” Morgerman’s home, like many in the area, is also elevated.
Wind is the other hazard Morgerman had to consider. He actually used lessons from damage that he has observed from seventy hurricane interceptions to shape thinking about wind resilience. His roof is rated to withstand wind speeds up to 200 mph. How is that possible? Morgerman says “building right is the key.” Examples include:
- Premium construction materials.
- 2 x 6 studs on the perimeter of the house.
- Solid, raised chain wall foundations.
- Implementation of continuous load path construction to reinforce connection points.
- A system of cables in the walls to resist uplift from the wind.
Hurricane Dorian (2019) was the strongest hurricane on record to hit the Bahamas. It had 185 mph sustained winds and was almost stationary at times. Morgerman rode out this storm and in his own words “was presumed dead.” He took away a construction lesson from this particular experience. Many of the homes that were not damaged had a standing seam metal roof. He decided to use that type of roof on his house. According to Morgerman, he skimped on some of the interior design to install these pricey but resilient features. Instead of wood, which was his preference, he used James Hardie fiber cement siding because it is impact-resistant and repels water.
Morgerman also emphasized the importance of the windows. People place boards on windows for a variety of reasons, including keeping water and debris out. Morgerman says there is another important reason to focus on windows. He said, “If wind gets into the house, it is like a balloon and can have cause significant structural damage to the home.” There are several options including boarding, impact-resistant windows or shutter systems. Morgerman chose the latter option for aesthetics, but his shutters are also reinforced.
Josh Morgerman, who has been featured in the television documentary series Hurricane Man, is a certified weather geek. His weather geekdom prompted another feature of the home. Morgerman shared, “I established this property not just to ride out the most extreme hurricanes, but also to measure them—and measure them right.” He installed a custom-designed weather station made with industrial-grade components used by governments and universities for Mesonets and research-grade weather stations. He noted, “I had an actual Mesonet instrumentalist, James Hyde, design and install the solution. And I even had a 10-meter mast installed on my back lawn so that the station’s anemometer—an R.M. Young Heavy Duty Wind Monitor—is at the correct 10 meters.” Morgerman said that by July his weather station will be continuously feeding data to a public webpage so anyone can check current conditions at Hurricane House in real time.”
Morgerman emphasizes that new or existing homes can add hurricane resiliency. He strongly recommends the FORTIFIED program, which may also help with insurance rates. Morgerman concluded by saying, “Since my property is only 1.5 blocks from the Gulf and quite exposed, this station will collect extremely valuable data in the next CAMILLE or KATRINA.”