Once the storm passed, the sight of Punta Gorda may have surprised some people. While it had typical post-hurricane storm debris, downed trees and several flooded streets, a number of homes and buildings appeared largely intact and many showed only minimal damage to their exteriors.
How is it possible that the coastal city wasn’t more devastated by a storm that ranks among the most powerful to ever strike the United States? One major factor, according to some experts, are modern building code
— The Washington Post
While other southwest Florida communities like Fort Myers were devastated, Punta Gorda, a town of about 20,000, was saved thanks to strident code changes enacted in the wake of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Charley twelve years later.
“It’s a demonstration that updated building codes really work,” University at Buffalo architecture professor Nicholas Rajkovich told the Post. Stricter structural load continuity, impact-resistant windows, and hurricane shutters are all hallmarks of a so-called “modern” code whose continued absence the AIA warned against earlier in the summer. Florida alone has an estimated $3.7 trillion worth of properties that are susceptible to storm and wind damage, making the need to further adapt lessons offered by the survival of Punta Gorda's Harvard Jolly-restored Charlotte High School imperative in the minds of experts statewide.
“It’s just a plain old practical thing, but it’s essential,” former Biden administration climate policy advisor David Hayes said, noting his assessment that only 30 percent of the country is adequately prepared at present. “When you build back now after this crisis, will the infrastructure be able to withstand the next Ian that’s coming along? That question has not been asked in previous administrations. It’s being asked and answered in this one.”
2 Comments
The Florida Building Code has little to do with whether the infrastructure survives a storm, or a flood, or a fire. Designing to the building code makes sure the deck chairs don't get splintered, designing the infrastructure avoids icebergs.
Alberto, you are wrong. The code mandates minimum standards which are used in designing and building structures to resist loads imposed on those structures. Fire resistance is included in those standards to protect both the structure, other structures and the lives of the people using the structure. I am sorry you don't understand the purpose of use of the building code.
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