Mitigation

Mitigation is any step taken to reduce the likelihood that damage will occur during an extreme event or to at least lessen the amount of damage that does occur. Good examples of mitigation are the relocation of houses out of flood-prone areas and the addition of shutters over unprotected glass in hurricane prone regions. Mitigation has become increasingly embedded in state and federal disaster programs over the past few years, primarily due to the overwhelming success of mitigation activities nationwide.

Another definition for mitigation is the ongoing effort to lessen the impact disasters have on people and property. Mitigation involves keeping homes away from floodplains, engineering bridges to withstand earthquakes, creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from hurricanes, and more. Mitigation is defined as “sustained action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards and their effects.” It describes the ongoing effort at the federal, state, local, and individual levels to lessen the impact of disasters upon our families, homes, communities and the economy.

Through the application of mitigation technologies and practices, our society can ensure that fewer Americans and their communities become victims of natural disasters. For example, mitigation measures can be applied to strengthen your home, so that your family and belongings are better protected from floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural hazards. They can be used to help business and industry avoid damages to their facilities and remain operational in the face of a catastrophic event. Mitigation technologies can be used to strengthen hospitals, fire stations, and other critical service facilities so that they can remain operational or reopen more quickly after an event. In addition, mitigation measures can help reduce disaster losses and suffering so that there is less demand for money and resources in the aftermath.

Code Plus

Code Plus is usually thought of in terms of new construction where additional measures can be taken at relatively minor costs to build better than the minimum required by code requirements. Why promote “Code Plus” disaster reduction techniques for existing homes?

Usually, it is a challenge to just bring some aspect of an older building up to the current building code requirements and in most cases, doing something, even if it doesn’t bring the home up to current code requirements, is better than doing nothing. In some ways this can be thought of as a sort of good-Samaritan approach to improving building resistance or mitigating damage potential.

In most cases, it is possible and desirable to go beyond the code minimum requirements because the extra cost is relatively small in comparison to the added strength or protection. The benefits:

• High level of storm protection for building.
• Higher level of protection of home contents and valuables.
  — May be a safer and more convenient alternative to evacuation for non–mandatory evacuations.
• Peace of mind.

We do not recommend ripping off existing sheathing and replacing it with thicker roof sheathing unless the whole deck was so damaged by repeated re-roofing, etc., that the deck had to be removed.

Retrofits to gable end bracing will not bring the structure “up to code” so “Code Plus” for Gable End Bracing applies only to new construction. For example, using the Building Code required wind speed +20 mph may really bump up the structural requirements of this retrofit, but it is not justified because the rest of the structure may be far below the current code requirements.

The tables that follow identify Code vs. Code Plus for a number of issues. Many of the items apply only to new construction or when performing a major retrofit or re-build to an existing house. Good judgment must be used when selecting the necessary and cost effective items to be completed to an existing house.