As someone who covered storm water issues for years, I know it’s impossible to prepare for the kind of storm we just saw. But it doesn’t help that North Carolina’s Republican legislators, who get strong support from developers, routinely cut corners on building standards that can mitigate the damage and make recovery easier. In fact, they just passed a lobbyist-written bill two months ago banning any updates to the building codes until 2031! Oops. Via the New York Times:
Over the past 15 years, North Carolina lawmakers have rejected limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides; blocked a rule requiring homes to be elevated above the height of an expected flood; weakened protections for wetlands, increasing the risk of dangerous storm water runoff; and slowed the adoption of updated building codes, making it harder for the state to qualify for federal climate-resilience grants.
Those decisions reflect the influence of North Carolina’s home building industry, which has consistently fought rules forcing its members to construct homes to higher, more expensive standards, according to Kim Wooten, an engineer who serves on the North Carolina Building Code Council, the group that sets home building requirements for the state.
“The home builders association has fought every bill that has come before the General Assembly to try to improve life safety,” said Ms. Wooten, who works for Facilities Strategies Group, a company that specializes in building engineering. She said that state lawmakers, many of whom are themselves home builders or have received campaign contributions from the industry, “vote for bills that line their pocketbooks and make home building cheaper.”
I’m not going to pretend that building codes are easy, especially without a bipartisan effort. But we see the damage left in the wake of the storm. Start with something simple, like requiring hurricane ties on rebuilt roofs.
