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By Max Dorfman, Analysis Author, Triple-I
Properties with extra fashionable roofs had been in a position to keep away from important injury from Hurricane Ian, in contrast with these with older roofs, in line with a current examine by the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA).
Of the 200 houses 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 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 houses and different buildings within the space, inflicting an estimated $55 billion in insured losses in 2024 {dollars}.
A few of this injury, in line with the info, might 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 modern plans to stop hurricane injury. These modifications additional got here into impact in 2002, with a brand new deal with roofing. Nonetheless, there have been inconsistencies within the high quality of the roofing.
“The Nineteen Seventies-era houses carried out higher than among the post-2002 new constructing code houses due to the sealed roof deck,” Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president of the Federal Alliance for Protected Properties, instructed The Miami Herald. “It was a nominal price (to strengthen the roof) and a easy factor to do, but it surely made an enormous distinction.”
Now, with a renewed deal with steel sheet roofs—which bear the brunt of storms extra resiliently than asphalt shingle roofs—FEMA’s knowledge might drastically change the best way by which houses are constructed, and the way insurers are responding to fraudulent claims.
Insurance coverage scams set progress again
Insurers are pressured to boost 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 mentioned. Nonetheless, implementing the modifications advised by the FEMA examine might assist alleviate among the issues posed by insurers—and assist owners.
“Whenever you’re taking a look at a house and evaluating its means to outlive a hurricane, the well being of the roof is the primary query to ask,” mentioned Chapman-Henderson. “It not solely will increase your efficiency within the hurricane itself, however within the present atmosphere it may well assist prevent cash in your insurance coverage.”
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