By Laurence Reisman  |  TC Palm

The Treasure Coast has survived its share of hurricanes the past few years, but thankfully nothing like Hurricane Michael.

Still, a story the other day from Ryan Mills, one of my colleagues in Naples, gave me pause.

The question he raised before we saw the rubble of destroyed homes in Florida’s Panhandle: Would damage be significant there because the region has a large number of older dwellings?

“More than 145,000 homes in Michael’s path, or about three-fourths of all residences in the nine Panhandle counties hit hardest, were built before 2000, which was before Florida unveiled some of the nation’s toughest building codes, according to U.S. Census Bureau housing data.

“Your older structures, prior to 2002, are not going to fare as well as the structures that were built since the Florida building codes went into effect,” said Jeremy Stewart, past president of the Florida Home Builders Association and owner of an Okaloosa County construction firm.”

The images we’ve seen in the wake of the Category 4 storm, with winds reportedly reaching 155 mph, are like nothing we’ve seen since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Andrew spurred increased building regulations in Florida designed to keep homes from being blown away. By the time I built my home in 1994, I was required, among other things, to have my roof trusses strapped to the 2- by 6-inch studs, which were secured to the cement pad.

The code got even stronger through 2002. So much so that when Florida insurers began giving discounts for improvements on older homes to meet that code, the aluminum shutters I bought in the late 1990s were not fortified enough to get a credit.

“Homes built before those codes were put into place … probably were not built as strong as homes built since,” Susan Millerick, a spokeswoman for the Tampa-based Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, told Mills.

If three-quarters of Panhandle homes — about the state average — were built before 2000, how many are there on the Treasure Coast?

Census numbers from 2016 show St. Lucie County leads the way with only 67.4 percent of homes built before 2000. Then again, with 137,649 total homes, St. Lucie has almost twice as many dwellings as Indian River or Martin counties.

Indian River, with 77,498 homes, has about 71.2 percent of homes built before 2000. In slow-growth Martin County, 83.1 percent were built before 2000.

Still, more than 213,000 homes on the Treasure Coast, including 55,000 in Indian River County, might benefit from some improvements if they’ve not been made already.

Remember those roofs you put on after the 2004 hurricanes? They’ll be almost 15 years old by next hurricane season. Aging roofs are something homeowners should pay attention to, Millerick said.

“As goes the roof, so goes the structure,” Millerick said, citing research her nonprofit has done at its facility in Richburg, South Carolina.

Lynne McChristian, an insurance and risk management professor at Florida State University and Florida representative for the New York-based nonprofit Insurance Information Institute, agreed.

“Our roofs take a beating,” she said Thursday from her powerless home in Tallahassee. “Twenty-five year shingles don’t really last that long. What people do is wait (to replace their roof) until it’s not an option.”

Instead, she said, homeowners should be proactive and work with their insurers. A new roof and waterproof barrier between the shingles and plywood, along with other changes, from shutters to wind-tested garage doors, could lead to insurance discounts.

Especially in older homes.

“If you have a new home, it’s likely a safe home,” she said. “And what you pay for insurance sends you a signal about your level of risk.”

In other words, the more expensive your insurance is, the more risky your home is.

What’s more, just because your home is up to code — even post 2002 — doesn’t mean you can’t do more.

“Building codes are just the floor, not the ceiling,” she said.

Millerick’s agency offers tips and a program (online at disastersafety.org/fortified) on how to protect your home.

It sounds like the best time to fortify is when you need to replace your roof tiles or shingles. That’s when you can consider hurricane straps, water barriers and special nails to secure shingles.

Other things I’ve done over the years include installing impact glass and a front door that opens to the outside, not the inside. When Florida offered rebates in the 2000s under the My Safe Florida Home program, I received a grant for installing a heavy-duty garage door.

Stan Boling, director of community development for Indian River County, said the county has helped low-income homebuyers renovate pre-2000 homes to code as part of the State Housing Initiatives Partnership. The partnership has loaned about $25 million to help low-income folks buy and fix up homes since 1992.

All of us hope the rest of the 2018 hurricane season, which seems far worse than anticipated, cools down. Regardless, it’s not too soon to plan ahead and save money for improvements in 2019 or 2020 just in case.

Article last accessed on October 15, 2018 here. A print-ready version is available here.