Re: "Houses... saved by low-cost reinforcements"
Posted by
Chris in Tampa on 10/18/2018, 7:53 pm
I don't know what the solution is. At some point, we might to have to stop building directly along the coast in some places. Or have stilts be a requirement in some areas to at least reduce the destruction from surge. As it is, people in the interior where there is less damage already pay for those along the coast with their insurance. (I say this as someone living on the coast.) Then again, sometimes interior locations get hit hard, including with this storm. If the code changes, or even if a house destroyed was built a long time ago and building to existing code is still a lot more, I don't know how insurance covers that, if they do.
Insurance companies should have a nice discount for those that retrofit their existing homes. And they should advertise it well. I don't know what winds those Habitat For Humanity houses had. Certainly different than Mexico Beach because there are a lot of trailer homes next door that didn't have a lot of damage. If they had experienced the worst winds, most of those trailer homes would have been destroyed. Retrofitting certainly does help, but long term, there are going to need to be more changes, either to codes, where we build, or more likely, both. |
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