I just finished a fourteen hour continuing education class for my contractor’s license here in Florida and in spite of the fact it was led by a very entertaining presenter, Carmen Ciricillo , fourteen hours of instruction in one sitting is a looooong time. By three o’clock it was pretty grueling. But that was when Carmen got into the subject of Wind Mitigation. We all know Wind Mitigation is the States attempt at getting the existing stock of housing strengthened since most of it was built before the codes changed but few people spend the money to do it. Carmen showed a video (probably to wake us up) about two homes across the street from each other during Hurricane Charlie. One home was basically untouched, the other lost its roof and was a total loss. What was the difference between the two homes? The year they were built.
After Hurricane Andrew the state of Florida got really serious about fortifying, strengthening and tying down the homes built in Florida. Regardless of where you stand on Government Regulation, the fact is, the new building codes worked. Since the Florida Building Code implemented the lessons learned after Hurricane Andrew thedamage to newly constructed homes has been minimal. Yes, during Charlie, Francis, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004 there were water intrusion issues and the press had a heyday. But structurally, thenewly built homes withstood the hurricanes very well. Yes, water did get into some homes and yes, people didn’t expect it and they certainly didn’t like it.
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