BUILDS
FORTIFIED
A fairly widely held misperception about building or retrofitting homes to make them more disaster-resistant is that it is too costly for most homeowners or builders. The Insurance Institute for
Business & Home Safety (IBHS) recently joined with Habitat for Humanity International and the
Travelers Foundation, the charitable division of The Travelers Companies, Inc., to help tangibly demonstrate that affordable housing and wind-resistant construction are not mutually
exclusive.
Numerous Habitat homes in the coastal regions of Alabama and Mississippi
have been built to IBHS’ FORTIFIED Home™ Hurricane standards as part of
this partnership. During the Travelers-IBHS-Habitat project, the Travelers
Foundation provided funds to cover the differential cost required to meet the
FORTIFIED Home™ Hurricane standards.
Since these homes were built in states that have mandatory FORTIFIED
financial incentives, they will have a lower total cost of ownership.
In addition, these stronger, safer, more hurricane-resistant homes
should suffer less property damage, and the disruption to the
homeowners’ lives that can occur in the event of a disaster
could be eliminated.
“If we can furnish a family a new home that exceeds
codes and is safer for them, we feel like we certainly
should do that,” said Russ Griffith, HFHI construction expert. “A lot of the areas already have good
codes, so the step up to FORTIFIED is not a
huge one.”
Griffith says the next phase of the program will
extend it to areas along the Atlantic Coast and
make the design criteria available to all Habitat
affiliate chapters.
“We have enjoyed our relationship with IBHS,”
he said. ”I’m looking forward to that partnership to continue for years to