Is your home ready for the next major weather emergency?

Anyone who’s ever scrambled to safety in the face of an approaching tornado or watched as straight-line winds propelled deadly debris into a home undoubtedly has an undying respect for what winds can do — or undo.

And while truly tornado-proofing a residence isn’t feasible, meteorological, emergency management, construction and insurance industry experts say homeowners can take some simple steps to make sure Mother Nature doesn’t huff and puff and blow your house down — steps that don’t have to break the bank.

A starting point that costs little time or coinage involves looking around your property with a weather eye.

“The biggest thing is to secure objects outside your home that could become flying debris,” said Cassie Mazloom, Cobb County’s emergency management director. “Fixing loose fence boards or peeling roof shingles.”

Securing patio furniture and items like grills and garbage cans fall into the same bucket, she said. Trim trees and shrubs so that branches don’t become flying missiles.

Requiring more lead time, planning and expense are the ways homeowners can physically bolster their surroundings, long before the skies darken.

“When we talk about tornadoes and high winds, the term (we use) is severe convective storms, which covers all types of non-hurricane hazards. And we’re seeing more severe convective storm losses in terms of insured loss in the U.S. than ever before,” said Mark Friedlander, the Insurance Information Institute’s director of corporate communications.

“We consider the roof of the home the first line of defense,” he said. “If the roof is not properly installed it tears away and the entire structure could collapse.” A solution: installing hurricane ties, clips or straps, which are galvanized, or stainless-steel connectors that reinforce the link between the roof truss and the walls to minimize the risk of the roof sailing away. What’s more, construction industry professionals say they can be installed without having to replace an entire roof at a cost of many thousands of dollars. Estimates are anywhere from $500 to $1,500 to clip-equip a typical home.

Ties have historically been associated with hurricane-prone coastal areas, but Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president and CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, said they’ve come to be increasingly used inland as well.

And while 100% on board with roof protection, Chapman-Henderson’s group places more emphasis on another part of a home — the garage door.

“We’ve known for decades that most often when you have a failure in a wind event the garage door, because it’s the largest and weakest opening in the home, is the thing that fails,” she said.

Then, she said, wind finds its way in, creating what she calls a “balloon-blowing up” issue, and as pressure rapidly builds, the roof will blow up from the inside out, as will the side walls.

Solidifying the linkage even more, Chapman-Henderson said most of the time when post-tornado investigators are checking, they can trace the beginning of roof damage to a spot adjacent to where the garage door failed.

She said homeowners can buy a garage-door bracing kit for $600-$800 with a DIY installation. For a higher cost, homeowners can have a steel column bracing kit professionally installed. Or, they can replace the entire door — the priciest option.

Impact-resistant windows are another consideration, consisting of reinforcing material around and between a couple of panes of glass.

“You have to look at the rating and you really have to do your research on these windows,” said Erica Lopez, a bilingual meteorologist with myradar.com.

She said they afford considerable protection of up to 150 miles an hour. Hurricane straps combined with impact-resistant windows can protect up to a full 180 miles an hour for properly built and/or reinforced garage doors.

To put that level of protection into context, Chapman-Henderson noted that most twisters generate winds of 135 miles per hour and below.

And then there’s what could be labeled an ultimate level of protection — with an accompanying hefty price tag — building from scratch with reinforced concrete or steel.

Peachtree City National Weather Service warning coordination meteorologist David Nadler said that’s not a widely embraced solution.

“There’s no house that’s going to be built of reinforced whatever around here in Atlanta unless you build it yourself or are willing to pay extra for it,” he said.

One item that homeowners seem increasingly willing to pay for is a full-fledged tornado safety room, seemingly building on the idea of retreating to an interior room on the lowest floor of a home.

But Friedlander doesn’t think those are as necessary as they might be in the mid and southwest — with their greater preponderance of strong tornadoes. And many homes having basements in Atlanta are an additional plus.

As he puts it, “The basement is always the best.”