Triple-I Weblog | FEMA Highlights Roleof Trendy Roofsin PreventingHurricane Harm
by thebestworldevents.com 3 February 2024 · Insurance
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By Max Dorfman, Analysis Author, Triple-I
Properties with extra fashionable roofs had been capable of keep away from important injury from Hurricane Ian, in contrast with these with older roofs, in accordance with a latest examine by the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA).
Of the 200 properties surveyed, 90 % with roofs put in earlier than 2015 had roof injury, versus 28 % for these put in after 2015, when Florida imposed new ordinances relating to how roofs are hooked up to homes and the way waterproof they should be. Certainly, 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}.
A few of this injury, in accordance with the info, may have been mitigated by up to date roofs.
Historical past tells the identical story
After the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida took the initiative to develop progressive plans to stop hurricane injury. These adjustments additional got here into impact in 2002, with a brand new give attention to roofing. Nonetheless, there have been inconsistencies within the high quality of the roofing.
“The Seventies-era properties carried out higher than a number of the post-2002 new constructing code properties due to the sealed roof deck,” Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of the Federal Alliance for Protected Properties, informed The Miami Herald. “It was a nominal value (to strengthen the roof) and a easy factor to do, but it surely made an enormous distinction.”
Now, with a renewed give attention to steel sheet roofs—which bear the brunt of storms extra resiliently than asphalt shingle roofs—FEMA’s knowledge may drastically change the best way during which properties are constructed, and the way insurers are responding to fraudulent claims.
Insurance coverage scams set progress again
Insurers are compelled 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 coverage charges up and harms all Florida policyholders,” Residents Property Insurance coverage CEO Tim Cerio stated. Nonetheless, implementing the adjustments prompt by the FEMA examine might assist alleviate a number of the issues posed by insurers—and assist householders.
“Once you’re a house and evaluating its potential to outlive a hurricane, the well being of the roof is the primary query to ask,” stated Chapman-Henderson. “It not solely will increase your efficiency within the hurricane itself, however within the present surroundings it will probably assist prevent cash in your insurance coverage.”
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