By Max Dorfman, Research Writer, Triple-I
Homes with extra fashionable roofs had been capable of keep away from vital injury from Hurricane Ian, in contrast with these with older roofs, in keeping with a current research by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Of the 200 properties surveyed, 90 p.c with roofs put in earlier than 2015 had roof injury, versus 28 p.c for these put in after 2015, when Florida imposed new ordinances concerning how roofs are hooked up to homes and the way waterproof they must be. Indeed, when Hurricane Ian made landfall at Cayo Costa, a barrier island in Lee County, Fla., on Sept. 28, 2022, it broken 52,514 properties and different constructions within the space, inflicting an estimated $55 billion in insured losses in 2024 {dollars}.
Some of this injury, in keeping with the information, may have been mitigated by up to date roofs.
History tells the identical story
After the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida took the initiative to develop revolutionary plans to forestall hurricane injury. These adjustments additional got here into impact in 2002, with a brand new give attention to roofing. However, there have been inconsistencies within the high quality of the roofing.
“The 1970s-era homes performed better than some of the post-2002 new building code homes because of the sealed roof deck,” Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, informed The Miami Herald. “It was a nominal cost (to reinforce the roof) and a simple thing to do, but it made a huge difference.”
Now, with a renewed give attention to metallic sheet roofs—which bear the brunt of storms extra resiliently than asphalt shingle roofs—FEMA’s information may drastically change the way in which by which properties are constructed, and the way insurers are responding to fraudulent claims.
Insurance scams set progress again
Insurers are pressured to lift the worth of protection in hurricane-prone areas in Florida due to a rash of schemes to intentionally injury roofs to qualify them for insurance coverage claims, a persisting development.
“Fraud drives insurance rates up and harms all Florida policyholders,” Citizens Property Insurance CEO Tim Cerio mentioned. Still, implementing the adjustments instructed by the FEMA research could assist alleviate a few of the considerations posed by insurers—and assist householders.
“When you’re looking at a home and evaluating its ability to survive a hurricane, the health of the roof is the first question to ask,” mentioned Chapman-Henderson. “It not only increases your performance in the hurricane itself, but in the current environment it can help save you money on your insurance.”
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