$\"construction$ <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By Alex Harris<\/div><\/div>\n

But a new report suggests growth along Fla.\u2019s coast undermines those hard-won building-code gains and fuels the rising cost of windstorm insurance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MIAMI \u2013 Florida leads the nation in strict building codes, and the decades of hard work have paid off in the increasing number of homes and buildings that survive each time a hurricane slashes the state.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But a new report from Swiss Re, a major global re-insurance company, suggests that all those hard-won gains have been undermined by the explosion of growth along the coast. And that has likely helped fuel the skyrocketing price of windstorm insurance across the state.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One year ago, Hurricane Ian struck Southwest Florida as a powerful Category 4 that wiped whole blocks off the map along the coast, and damaged homes and roofs miles inland. It\u2019s the most expensive storm in the state\u2019s history.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If that same storm had struck in the 1970s, the Swiss Re report said, it would have caused half or even a third as much damage as it did.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And while building codes have improved dramatically since 2002, when the updated standards went statewide, the biggest driver behind Ian\u2019s outsize impact was just how many people now live in the strike zone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur models show a clear imbalance: Reducing vulnerability by strengthening building codes, a key element of adaptation, has been insufficient since the 1970s to compensate for expected losses from accompanying population-driven property value growth,\u201d the report, released Monday, read.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018We do know how to build better\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
Some building code experts disagreed with pointing the finger at sprawling growth along the coast for the soaring damage losses and insurance premiums. They argue it\u2019s the state\u2019s aging housing stock that is most vulnerable and newer homes and upgraded old ones have endured high winds better and helped reduce risks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re equal forces,\u201d said Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of FLASH, or the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the survival of even the most affordable homes in the path of these storms.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Dorothy Mazzarella, vice president for government relations for the International Code Council, said her key takeaway from the report is the recognition that better building codes work. She said people will always want to live along Florida\u2019s coastline, no matter how vulnerable it is \u2013 or how expensive it gets to live there \u2013 so the answer is to better prepare for future storms.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to do more on the front end, which is the mitigation side,\u201d Mazzarella said. \u201cWe can\u2019t prevent them, but we know we can prepare for them.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
However, Chapman-Henderson added, relying on new construction to strengthen the state\u2019s risky spots only addresses a small part of the problem. Older homes, built before effective hurricane-resistant building codes kicked in, make up the majority of Florida\u2019s housing stock. In the areas touched by Ian\u2019s winds alone, about 69% of the properties were built before 2000, according to the Wall Street Journal\u2019s review of census data and National Hurricane Center records.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
And fixing them is more complicated than simply building a new home from scratch.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
In Lee County, there\u2019s been a backlash against bringing storm-damaged homes all the way up to the newest version of the code, a pricey endeavor that may involve elevating it several feet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, this is the clash of what\u2019s affordable and what\u2019s achievable and what\u2019s ideal,\u201d Chapman-Henderson said. \u201cWe do know how to build in the face of these disasters that cost millions of dollars. We have to maintain the will to do so on a consistent basis.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Stronger homes, cheaper insurance<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
So would fortifying every single property in risky areas solve this problem? Not exactly, said Erdem Karaca, head of catastrophe perils in the Americas for Swiss Re and co-author of the report. While more and more homes and buildings are better prepared for storms, packing in a much higher volume of people just increases the number of chances something could go wrong.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Karaca points to the many pool screens destroyed on homes miles inland from Hurricane Ian. Yes, he said, the homes may have been in good shape, but all those little damages still add up, and they\u2019re why wind is the number one threat from an insurance perspective, while storm surge remains the biggest threat to life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThe more people live there, the more pools we have, it tallies up,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Insurance premiums are based, in part, on the risk in an entire area. So if that risk is constantly rising, the premiums will too.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
But if enough homes and buildings are safe from storms, that could potentially drive down the risk, and therefore insurance costs, said Matt Junge, the head of property underwriting in the U.S. for Swiss Re.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cFor insurance companies to provide insurance, they have to have confidence they\u2019re going to predict what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Junge said he was \u201coptimistic\u201d that Florida\u2019s recent efforts to curtail another issue in the market, the glut of fraudulent lawsuits, was going to help bring premiums down eventually. And he said that the more Florida can strengthen its housing stock, the more that trend can continue.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll take some time,\u201d he cautioned.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u2018Just because you can doesn\u2019t mean you should\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
The report also took into account another factor affecting coastal storms in Florida \u2013 climate change.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Karaka and his co-author found that the increasingly warmer ocean, which is linked to stronger and wetter hurricanes, could have also played a role in making Hurricane Ian a worse storm than a similar one in 1970, when waters were cooler. And that impact, plus the massive population gains in Southwest Florida, significantly outweighs the last 20 years of stricter building practices.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
That puts Florida\u2019s coastline in the cross-hairs of even stronger storms in the future, with a whole lot more people there to experience them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
That gives Vivian Young, communications director for 1,000 Friends of Florida, a smart growth advocacy group, pause. She praised the state\u2019s commitment to building better, but wondered how far that can really take us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Storms don\u2019t just impact homes, they rip up roads, crack water pipes and flood government buildings. Recovering from a storm comes at a high cost to taxpayers, both locally and federally. And in Florida, plenty of that risk is insured through public-run, deeply subsidized programs like Citizens, the state-run insurer of last resort.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re kind of punting the problem down the road a bit,\u201d she said. \u201cTaxpayers are paying through Citizens or the National Flood Insurance Program for rebuilding in these vulnerable areas, but is that really the best option?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Climate change is increasing the chances of stronger and more deadly storms, and sea level rise could permanently inundate swaths of Florida\u2019s coastline, making it inconvenient and expensive to live there.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
Young said the technology may be out there to help homes withstand even the strongest winds from a powerful hurricane, but the cost of insuring a home that weathers an extreme storm, or even moderate flooding, regularly could become too much for homeowners, or even banks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI think the state is reaching a tipping point and there\u2019s going to have to be a really serious conversation about where it\u2019s appropriate to develop, where we should be redeveloping and whether we should live in certain areas at all,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
It\u2019s like the old adage with new cutting-edge technology, she said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you can doesn\u2019t mean you should.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a9 2023 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
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\nAuthor: kerrys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Alex Harris But a new report suggests growth along Fla.\u2019s coast undermines those hard-won building-code gains and fuels the rising cost of windstorm insurance. MIAMI \u2013 Florida leads the nation in strict building codes, and the decades of hard work have paid off in the increasing number of homes and buildings that survive each time a hurricane slashes the state. But a new report from Swiss Re, a major global re-insurance company, suggests that all those hard-won gains have been undermined by the explosion of growth along the coast. And that has likely helped fuel the skyrocketing price of windstorm insurance across the state. One year ago, Hurricane Ian struck Southwest Florida as a powerful Category 4 that wiped whole blocks off the map along the coast, and damaged homes and roofs miles inland. It\u2019s the most expensive storm in the state\u2019s history. If that same storm had struck in the 1970s, the Swiss Re report said, it would have caused half or even a third as much damage as it did. And while building codes have improved dramatically since 2002, when the updated standards went statewide, the biggest driver behind Ian\u2019s outsize impact was just how many people now live in the strike zone. \u201cOur models show a clear imbalance: Reducing vulnerability by strengthening building codes, a key element of adaptation, has been insufficient since the 1970s to compensate for expected losses from accompanying population-driven property value growth,\u201d the report, released Monday, read. \u2018We do know how to build better\u2019 Some building code experts disagreed with pointing the finger at sprawling growth along the coast for the soaring damage losses and insurance premiums. They argue it\u2019s the state\u2019s aging housing stock that is most vulnerable and newer homes and upgraded old ones have endured high winds better and helped reduce risks. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re equal forces,\u201d said Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of FLASH, or the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the survival of even the most affordable homes in the path of these storms.\u201d Dorothy Mazzarella, vice president for government relations for the International Code Council, said her key takeaway from the report is the recognition that better building codes work. She said people will always want to live along Florida\u2019s coastline, no matter how vulnerable it is \u2013 or how expensive it gets to live there \u2013 so the answer is to better prepare for future storms. \u201cWe have to do more on the front end, which is the mitigation side,\u201d Mazzarella said. \u201cWe can\u2019t prevent them, but we know we can prepare for them.\u201d However, Chapman-Henderson added, relying on new construction to strengthen the state\u2019s risky spots only addresses a small part of the problem. Older homes, built before effective hurricane-resistant building codes kicked in, make up the majority of Florida\u2019s housing stock. In the areas touched by Ian\u2019s winds alone, about 69% of the properties were built before 2000, according to the Wall Street Journal\u2019s review of census data and National Hurricane Center records. And fixing them is more complicated than simply building a new home from scratch. In Lee County, there\u2019s been a backlash against bringing storm-damaged homes all the way up to the newest version of the code, a pricey endeavor that may involve elevating it several feet. \u201cUnfortunately, this is the clash of what\u2019s affordable and what\u2019s achievable and what\u2019s ideal,\u201d Chapman-Henderson said. \u201cWe do know how to build in the face of these disasters that cost millions of dollars. We have to maintain the will to do so on a consistent basis.\u201d Stronger homes, cheaper insurance So would fortifying every single property in risky areas solve this problem? Not exactly, said Erdem Karaca, head of catastrophe perils in the Americas for Swiss Re and co-author of the report. While more and more homes and buildings are better prepared for storms, packing in a much higher volume of people just increases the number of chances something could go wrong. Karaca points to the many pool screens destroyed on homes miles inland from Hurricane Ian. Yes, he said, the homes may have been in good shape, but all those little damages still add up, and they\u2019re why wind is the number one threat from an insurance perspective, while storm surge remains the biggest threat to life. \u201cThe more people live there, the more pools we have, it tallies up,\u201d he said. Insurance premiums are based, in part, on the risk in an entire area. So if that risk is constantly rising, the premiums will too. But if enough homes and buildings are safe from storms, that could potentially drive down the risk, and therefore insurance costs, said Matt Junge, the head of property underwriting in the U.S. for Swiss Re. \u201cFor insurance companies to provide insurance, they have to have confidence they\u2019re going to predict what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said. Junge said he was \u201coptimistic\u201d that Florida\u2019s recent efforts to curtail another issue in the market, the glut of fraudulent lawsuits, was going to help bring premiums down eventually. And he said that the more Florida can strengthen its housing stock, the more that trend can continue. \u201cIt\u2019ll take some time,\u201d he cautioned. \u2018Just because you can doesn\u2019t mean you should\u2019 The report also took into account another factor affecting coastal storms in Florida \u2013 climate change. Karaka and his co-author found that the increasingly warmer ocean, which is linked to stronger and wetter hurricanes, could have also played a role in making Hurricane Ian a worse storm than a similar one in 1970, when waters were cooler. And that impact, plus the massive population gains in Southwest Florida, significantly outweighs the last 20 years of stricter building practices. That puts Florida\u2019s coastline in the cross-hairs of even stronger storms in the future, with a whole lot more people there to experience them. That gives Vivian Young, communications director for 1,000 Friends of Florida, a smart growth advocacy group, pause. She praised the state\u2019s commitment to building better, but wondered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}