By Richard Wall
Any catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina that smashes homes like matchboxes focuses everyone's attention on building codes. Marc Levitan welcomes that attention, both as director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, which analyzes the destructive effects of hurricanes, and as a guy trying to build a home in Baton Rouge that can withstand a Category 3 hurricane.
"I wanted safety upgrades, but it was like pulling teeth with my contractor," says Marc. "I had to put on the hurricane straps myself."
Building codes in Louisiana and Mississippi are presently optional for local authorities to adopt or enforce. "It's pretty obvious that what we had didn't work," says Marc, who has a Ph.D. in civil engineering and also serves as a member of FEMA's Mitigation Assessment Team, which goes into devastated areas to determine how building practices can be improved to reduce loss. His first recommendation is for Louisiana to adopt the current IRC codes statewide.
Noting that Katrina could easily have been worse for New Orleans, Marc says the technology and know-how exist to build homes that can withstand even a Category 5 hurricane. Construction research in Oklahoma shows that if constructed properly, buildings can survive tornado winds.
The monster storm surge of a Category 5 "'cane" is another matter, however. Marc recommends allowing wetlands to redevelop as natural storm buffers; re-engineering levees in New Orleans to prevent breaches; and prohibiting rebuilding in many coastal areas and lower-level sections of New Orleans as the best protection against such catastrophic flooding.
Here are some of Marc's recommendations for improved building codes and practices for wind- and flood-prone areas:
- In high-risk flood zones, require new buildings to be elevated, with only a garage on the ground level.
- Homes on coastal beach areas should be built on driven piles, and first stories designed to tear away during the storm surge to reduce pressure on the rest of the structure.
- Houses in flood zones should adopt flood proofing. Dry flood proofing uses barriers, materials, and construction design to keep water out of the house. Wet flood proofing assumes water will get inside and minimizes that damage by using non-carpet flooring, raising the height of utilities, and using tile or other non-wood materials on the first foot or two of interior walls.
- Require that roof decking be screwed down, not stapled, and use special roofing tape to seal joints.
Loss Lessons
The destruction of many Gulf Coast homes could have been prevented. "There would have been a lot less damage if those homes had been up to Florida building codes," says Jack Glenn, technical services director of the Florida Home Builders Association.
Not too long ago, Florida was a codes mess, with 400 sets of building codes and spotty enforcement. Hurricanes Andrew in 1992 and Opal in 1995 blew away that scattered thinking, and the state adopted locally enforced uniform codes. Building in Florida changed in two important ways. "First, building practices between districts became uniform," says Jack. "But more importantly, education on building codes has mushroomed, resulting in better buildings and better inspections."
New buildings in Florida are 100% better in resisting wind damage, Jack adds. That was proven last year by Hurricane Charley, the first 'cane that came ashore as a "design event" -- one strong enough to put the new building codes to a real-world test.
Though Charley's damage was minimized by the new Florida codes, the FEMA team that assessed structure damage discovered an unexpected culprit: soffits. And Marc's FEMA team investigating Katrina's damage has discovered other weaknesses; they will be addressed in the agency's final report.
Marc doesn't want to wait for governments to solve these problems, though. He wants the industry to step up. "The building industry hasn't seemed to get behind the concept that safety sells. If you build something to code, that just means that you've built the crappiest house allowed," says Marc. "Contractors will try to sell the customer an upgrade to granite countertops, but where's the Category 3 package? Where's the safety upgrade?"
Richard Wall is a writer and editor living in St. Augustine, Florida.
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