The purpose of this Guide is to provide guidance on how to improve the wind resistance of existing residential buildings in Mississippi and across the Gulf Coast. Although this Guide was developed to support initiatives in the Gulf Coast region, the content of this document should serve as guidance on retrofitting existing buildings for improved performance during high-wind events in all coastal regions; it is applicable to one- and two-family dwellings, but not to manufactured housing. Although this guidance is primarily intended to be applied in the hurricane prone region of the United States, it may also be applied to other regions. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has published many other guidance documents on coastal construction as well. In areas where this Guide does not address particular material types, building layouts, and other customizable factors of homes, the Coastal Construction Manual (FEMA 55, fourth edition to be published in 2011) should be used as a reference, as discussed in later chapters of this Guide.