FEMA wants to fix building codes across U.S. Florida is already ahead of the pack
Miami-Dade County has some of the strongest building codes in the world, designed to withstand the punishing 150 mph winds of Category 5 storms like Hurricane Andrew, which hit 30 years ago and inspired the change.
Now, President Joe Biden’s administration wants the rest of the country to follow Miami-Dade’s lead.
On Wednesday, the first day of the 2022 hurricane season, the administration announced a new initiative to modernize building codes around the country. Newer building codes could save energy and money and better prepare the nation for the more intense disasters brought on by climate change.
Every year, FEMA spends tens of billions of dollars rebuilding communities after hurricanes, wildfires and floods.
“Just think about how much less that would be and how much more resilient we would be if we had modern building codes,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said at a press conference to announce the initiative.
She stood in front of a towering structure of massive fans at Florida International University’s Wall of Wind research facility, the warehouse where researchers test drive new roof and building technologies against galeforce winds.
BUILDING CODES
Criswell said the Biden administration hopes to
export some of those findings — on the newest and best building technology — to create a stronger building code to use on any building built with federal money, as well as to help communities adopt more modern building codes.
‘We’re going to make sure that when we spend taxpayer dollars that we build to these modern codes,” said Deputy White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi.
Zaidi said the administration has earmarked $225 million for grants to help small communities staff up and adopt new codes, as well as give incentives to communities to switch to newer codes.
Michael Savage, director of the International Code Council, said Florida publishing a new version of its statewide building code every three years is unusual. Most Florida counties and cities immediately adopt the updated code.
A FEMA study found
that two-thirds of the nation relies on outdated building codes. And not just one edition behind.
Savage said he knows of some communities in Virginia that still use electrical codes from 1996.
“That’s a little problematic. A national initiative goes a long way toward fixing that,” he said.
For the rest of the nation, that might look like following in Florida’s footsteps. But that doesn’t mean Miami-Dade can stop making improvements, said
Roy Wright, president of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.
“There’s no question about it that Miami-Dade is the lead goose,” he said. “What’s so imperative is that Miami-Dade stay up front and keep taking the best and latest science.”
Wright pointed to last June’s Surfside condominium collapse, which he called a “horrifying reminder” that we need better research and technology to fix aging buildings.
As for storms, he said the next frontier for research is how to design a building that can withstand the pummeling winds and storm surge of a hurricane like Harvey, which flooded Houston for days, or Dorian, one of the deadliest storms to strike the Bahamas.
“Yes, you’ve addressed fundamental pieces and the rest of the country is following you, but let’s not fall prey to a failure of imagination,” Wright said.
RISING SEAS
Another growing threat is increased flooding from sea rise, which South Florida already regularly experiences. Some local advocates for climate-change mitigation have called for Miami-Dade to again lead the nation and develop building codes to protect against floods.
But so far, the state’s building code team has not adopted any of the sea rise-related flooding standards that researchers suggested.
Wright said he didn’t necessarily see a need for a new flood codes. Instead, he suggested that communities should follow the established science for living with water.
“Unlike wind, there’s only three ways to mitigate for flood. You can get out of the way, you can go higher and stronger and you can redirect the water,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ve gotten enough out of the way.”