[jimbo2012]

(AP) ORLANDO, Fla. - Officials with the National Hurricane Center had a message Tuesday for residents living in hurricane-prone areas: Don't tape your windows.

Center officials are joining with a consumer advocate group at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Fla. this week to encourage residents to skip taping their windows when a hurricane is heading their way. They believe it leads to a false sense of security and actually increases danger.

Instead, residents should use proven methods such as hurricane shutters or impact-resistant windows, Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center, told hundreds of meteorologists and emergency management officials at the weeklong conference. Attendees are going to seminars on insurance policy and emergency communications as well as hawking hurricane-related wares such as canned food and building-hardening materials.

"Our goal is to break this myth," Read said, referring to taping. "It does not protect your windows. At best, it's an inconvenience. At worst, some people have the illusion that they're safe ... and people can get severely hurt."

Taping windows can create larger and deadlier shards of glass when winds blow through a home, said Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president and CEO of Federal Alliance for Safe Homes.

"The shards can become bigger because they're being held together," Chapman-Henderson said. "You're wasting your time. You're wasting your money and you're potentially increasing the danger to your home."


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