Stronger, more resilient building codes strengthen community lifelines, reduce community risk and reduce overall disaster recovery costs.[18] Adopting and enforcing hazard-resistant building codes is one of the most cost-effective ways to safeguard communities against natural disasters. FEMA is leading efforts to advance the recognition of current building codes as a foundational element of resilience and will continue this effort through its HMA programs.
FEMA’s Building Codes Save: A Nationwide Study found that universally adopting and enforcing up-to-date building codes could avoid more than $600 billion in losses by 2060 for known flood, hurricane and seismic risks. This finding, as well as the congressional passage of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, laid the foundation for the development of the FEMA Building Codes Strategy. The strategy will help to coordinate and prioritize FEMA’s activities to advance the adoption and enforcement of disaster-resistant building codes and standards for FEMA programs and communities nationwide and informs FEMA’s requirements for achieving the Strategy’s goals.
Its goals are to:
- Integrate building codes and standards across FEMA.
- Strengthen nationwide capability for superior building performance.
- Drive public action on building codes.
Other federal efforts also acknowledge the importance of hazard-resistant building codes and advocate for their adoption and enforcement. FEMA’s goals around building codes are reflected in the National Mitigation Investment Strategy, which makes several recommendations concerning the adoption, use, and enforcement of building codes, including using the latest published edition of building codes to ensure adequate structural integrity, mechanical integrity, fire prevention and energy conservation.
The White House launched the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes, building upon the recent work of FEMA. In launching the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes, the White House called on the Mitigation Framework Leadership Group to conduct a whole-of-government effort to ensure alignment across all federally-funded or -supported building construction to use the most recent editions of building codes, noting that “[c]ommunities that have adopted modern building codes are already saving an estimated $1.6 billion a year in avoided damage from major hazards, with projected cumulative savings of $132 billion through 2040, a figure that will become much higher if more communities adopt modern codes.”[19]
There is still a long way to go in the collective effort to build a climate-resilient nation. Code adoption and enforcement still lag in areas of the country where disaster risks are the most severe; roughly one-third of communities facing damaging wind, hurricane, tornado, seismic or flood hazards have adopted hazard-resistant codes.[20] With the average annual number of billion-dollar disasters continuing to increase, adopting building codes is one of the most effective actions that communities can take to build resilience for the long term. Model building codes improve with each edition based on lessons learned, building science advancements, engineering practices and technological advances. Staying current, by adopting and enforcing the latest published building codes can save lives and protect property for generations to come. HMA programs provide critical assistance to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to adopt and improve enforcement of the most recent building codes. For more information regarding building code assistance available under HMA programs, refer to Part 11.