The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) recently launched a public advisory urging North Carolina residents to rebuild their homes according to specified engineering standards that will make them more resilient to future natural catastrophes.
North Carolina was among the hardest hit as Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc in the Southeastern US last month.
For starters, IBHS president and chief executive Julie Rochman said homeowners should reinforce their roofs because it is their first line of protection against the wrath of Mother Nature during adverse weather events.
Rochman recommended adhering to “Roofing the Right Way,” which is a specific set of guidelines that provides standards for professional roofing contractors to follow.
It is part of IBHS’s Fortified Home standards, which is a set of engineering and construction guidelines developed to ensure the resilience and strength of new and existing homes, and minimize damage from natural catastrophes.
“(Fortified Home) provides a uniform, voluntary, superior set of standards to upgrade the home and help improve its resilience by adding system specific upgrades to the minimum code requirements. There are three levels of designation—Bronze, Silver and Gold—that build upon each other, allowing homeowners to choose the desired level of protection that best suits budgets and resilience goals,” Rochman added.
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