By Jeff Jeffrey
February 17, 2012
WASHINGTON – Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, any buildings along Mississippi’s Gulf coast are ill-prepared for another significant hurricane because the state has few laws in place governing minimum building codes, according to Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. That assessment has some industry trade groups worried, given that 2011 brought record losses for property/casualty companies in the United States.
In a new report released by the IIBHS, Mississippi received a score of four out of a possible 100 for how the state adopts and enforces building codes, grants and enforces contractor licenses and continued code official education and training. Mississippi’s score put it at the bottom of the list of 18 states along the Atlantic Coast that the institute evaluated.
“Mississippi has virtually no regulatory process in place for building codes,” the report said. “Seven counties in Mississippi are required to enforce the wind and flood requirements of the 2003 International Residential Code. Otherwise, here is no statewide code, no mandatory enforcement, no programs or requirements for inspectors, and very few licensing requirements. General contractors are the only trade required to pass an exam prior to licensing and the state has mechanisms to discipline contractors.”
Wanda Edwards, director of code development for IIBHS, told Best’s News Service from a consumer standpoint, Mississippi’s lack of codes is “very concerning because they don’t know what they’re getting into when they buy a home.”
Edwards, who authored the report, said that could be especially true for first-time homebuyers who “have to scrape whatever money they have to get into their home. They certainly don’t have money laying around to hire a lawyer if something goes wrong.”
States should enact laws that set minimum code and contractor-licensing requirements because it would “take the local politics out of the equation.”
Mississippi is not the only state that doesn’t have statewide building codes in place. Near bottom-ranked Alabama, Texas and Delaware also lack one, but scored higher than Mississippi because they have stiffer contractor licensing and continuing education requirements. Edwards noted Georgia has statewide building code laws but doesn’t have laws in place that allow those codes to be enforced. “I don’t know what kind of situation that leaves you with,” she said.
Louisiana, the other state hit hard by Katrina scored a 73 out of 100 on the report because it passed a series of code laws after the 2005 storm leveled parts of the states and left New Orleans underwater. The levees built after the storm decrease the likelihood of a catastrophic flood event happening again; many old structures destroyed during Katrina were never rebuilt; and new construction must adhere to building codes (Best’s News Service, May 24, 2010).
Also scoring high were Florida and Virginia, which each received a 95. Edwards said those two states have some room for improvement, “but they represent the level to which other states should be pushing to achieve.” New Jersey and Massachusetts scored high as well.
While the 2011 hurricane season was relatively mild, industry trade groups say building codes could go a long way in limiting the damaged caused by future storms.
“AIA supports the goal of implementing stronger and more uniform building codes as it will save both lives and property,” said Willem Rijksen, spokesman for the American Insurance Association, in an email. “Building codes serve as an important baseline for safety standards. Florida’s implementation of strong and uniform building codes following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew should serve as a model to other states. Had such codes been in place prior to Andrew’s destruction, it is estimated that damages would have been reduced by 50% for residential and 40% for commercial properties.”