More Best Practices
My whole career, I’ve thought about and seen hurricane damage up close. My first-ever work trip was in 1996 to Miami, Florida, to see the rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Andrew. Two years after the storm, the recovery was still in its earliest stages, and I can still remember what seemed like endless blocks of devastation. Ten years later, I flew to New Orleans to witness the same recovery efforts one year after Hurricane Katrina. In reality, we saw very little rebuilding—only trash haulers and residents dealing with the moldy mess. Full reconstruction would take several more years, and some parts of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast would never look like they did pre-Katrina.
In July of last year I was back on the Gulf Coast, but this time it wasn’t to see hurricane damage. I was meeting with Ben Murphy, a roofing contractor and home builder in Foley, Ala. Since I was last on the Gulf Coast, Alabama had incentivized the Fortified Home standard in an effort to reduce damage from hail, high winds, and flooding caused by hurricanes and intense storms.
The Fortified standard is a program of the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS)f, a nonprofit researcher working on behalf of the United States insurance industry. The material and assembly testing at the IBHS research lab in South Carolina and its investigations following major storms have led to standards meant to make homes more resilient during severe weather. The jaw-dropping research facility can simulate hurricane-force wind and rain, hail, and flying projectiles.
Three Types of Fortified
Fortified standards include three designation levels for both new homes and retrofits. Each level builds on the last and includes additional improvements for increased resilience against natural disasters.
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14 Comments
We can't build our way out of climate change, think "Titanic". Where are the energy saving features to this fortified home that will reduce energy consumption and the greenhouse gas load? Clear cutting to provide all of the extra material for this climate safe house seems like a poor tradeoff.
Valid concerns. Definitely. But, technically -- building "Home A" one time vs. building "Home A" 4 times after every major storm should yield lower footprints related to materials consumption and carbon. Resilience is a necessary characteristic for all homes in all locations, but climate-specific resiliency is a wise way to slow down the landfills, the soil and waterway poisoning, and the clear cutting. If homes make it 100 years through changing climatic forces, there would be much less consumption and waste and emissions (plus, insurance might be more palatable again...and commodity prices less volatile...).
This article was a window into process change potential, a way of seeing that drastic changes can be achieved without drastic measures. The scope was not intended to address the entire build process and other pertinent factors meriting review within the building industry. At least, that's how I read it.
tenergyservices,
I agree. It's increasingly clear there is neither the political will or organizational ability to combat climate change globally. Adapting our buildings to the new reality of the conditions they are facing and will face only makes sense.
This is good stuff......Those who can afford to build this way should.... On the other hand, housing affordability is now a huge concern and the added cost of all of this will simply make it much harder for anyone other than the very wealthy to live near the ocean unless they have an existing house. I am not sure there is a solution that is cost effective.
By the way, it was interesting that the article mentioned Hurricane Andrew. That storm was so massive. The devastation that storm wrought across the entire state of Florida really changed a alot of things, including building codes. It also acclerated the importation and use of undocumented construction workers at a rate well in excess of what went before it. At one point thousands of houses had blue tarps for roofs as they simply could not find enough roofers even as crews from all over began migrating to Floridad to help. Many looked the other way about working papers so the job could get done. I wonder if we will face something similar once acclerated deportation begins in the coming year?
Hi All, Thanks very much for your comments and insights. I think it's safe to assume that resilience will be given increased emphasis in model codes and local enforcement in the years to come. FHB and GBA will also continue to talk about how to help people and their homes deal with increasingly volatile weather. I'm curious if your clients are making resilience a priority in their building decisions yet?
Patrick,
I work in coastal British Columbia where one of our biggest concerns - seismic resistance - is already effectively dealt with in our code. The biggest change I've seen from customers is their desire to make their houses work through prolonged power outages through a mixture of on-site power generation and propane heaters and appliances.
That's interesting Malcolm. Is it power outages from wildfire they're trying to be prepared for? As I understand it, California has seen huge growth in installations of on-demand generators for folks dealing with electric utility shut-downs and disruptions from wildfire.
Patrick,
More the frequent outages due to trees on the power lines. To be fair they have always occurred here, and are in part due to the forestry policy of leaving narrow buffers between the logging clear-cuts and roads, which cause blow-downs in storms. But the frequency of high winds seems to have increased too.
Learning about regional building challenges and builder and policy response is a big reason I never tire of visiting this site Malcom. Thanks for your answers.
Speaking from the California perspective, as of 2019 PG&E (the only utility provider for most of Northern California) has been doing Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) after getting hammered by a lawsuit. Its done preemptively if the heat, humidity, and winds make fires too risky. I'd love to say this has caused a massive increase in solar and battery storage adoption, but in my experience, when faced with the prospect of days without power and seeing the price difference, most end up buying large generators that can power the entire house.
That aligns with what I've heard from generator folks bcade.
Patrick,
Many of my neighbours here have gone that route and after a recent three day power outage were shocked at how much propane their generators consumed. Beyond price, one of the dilemmas they faced is that suppliers here won’t refill their tanks until they are under 20%, meaning they often don’t have enough fuel on hand for a prolonged outage.
I hadn't really thought about that Walter, but I'm not surprised they use a ton of fuel. My 5000 watt portable uses about a gallon or more of gas an hour under load and gasoline has a greater energy-density than propane. I'm guessing the folks in California will also struggle to get a propane delivery during widescale interruptions.
Hurricane Andrew was in 1992. If you went to Miami to clean up in 1996, that was four, not two years after the storm.
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