A new report released today shows Florida isn’t alone in easing up on building regulations even as the effects of climate change escalate, Bloomberg reports.
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, examining building policies in 18 Atlantic and Gulf Coast states, found many of those states are either relaxing their approach to codes or are not imposing any whatsoever despite the increasing severity of natural disasters.
The trend leaves residents more at-risk during severe weather events and puts states at odds with a Trump administration struggling to cope with record disaster costs.
Heavy rains in August 2016 damaged or destroyed more than 50,000 homes and caused more than $10 billion in damage in Louisiana. Yet the state, under pressure from local officials, has subsequently balked at adopting updated building codes, requiring homes be built at least one foot above the so-called base-flood elevation.
The decision was in response to pressure from local governments, which wanted to retain the authority to set their own rules about whether homes should be required to be elevated above the floodplain, Michael Wich, a building inspector and board member of the Louisiana Home Builders Association, says.
If the state hadn’t made that concession to local governments, Wich says, “I think we would have been discussing whether or not we have a statewide building code, period.”
