The Power of Florida’s Building Code & Byron’s Better Top 3 Takeaways – October 24th, 2023
- The power of the code. When I think of the difference that having a strong building code can make in Florida there’s one image in particular that’s emblazoned on my brain. The one house left standing, completely unharmed, by Hurricane Michael on Mexico Beach. There’s a good chance you remember it too. It was the ultimate case of one of these things not being like the others. Amid the debris field of literally every other house on that beach – there the house was looking almost as if it was photoshopped into the scene. And why did that house survive unscathed amid the utter destruction of all the others? Quoting the owner at the time: We paid attention to every detail from the ground up...from pilings to the roof and everything in between. We were making decisions about what kind of materials to use, we didn’t pay attention to code, we went above and beyond code and we asked the question...What would survive the big one? And we consistently tried to build it for that. And once upon a time, that was that important. And that’s because Florida’s building code wasn’t built for the big one that Michael turned out to be in 2018 or that Ian was last year. Hurricane Andrew began to change everything in Florida’s building code. The Miami-Dade building code fashioned around what it would take for a home to survive “a big one” like Andrew was first enacted in South Florida in 1994 but it wasn’t until 2002 that it was mandatory statewide. Building codes have continued to be tweaked over the years all with an idea on improving strength and safety and the result has been profound. A just released study by Moody’s analytics entitled: Adapting to Hurricane Risk A Florida Case Study – found just how profound the difference in building code is. The wind impact of the average hurricane to make landfall in Florida (not the big one), is more than six times less for homes built under current building code as opposed to the pre-1994 building code in South Florida and 2002 for the rest of the state. That’s not a mistake - over six times less wind damage on average. When your house was built, and/or whether it was built to code or above it can make all of the difference in the event of “the big one”, but it can make six times the difference in just the average one. And speaking of the power of the code, the Moody’s study had another significant nugget to share about what’s often the biggest issue of all in hurricanes – flood risk. The average flood damage done to homes as a result of storm surge is 46% less with current code compared to previous codes but there’s a massive difference for those who go beyond it. The average property built above flood code which experiences storm surge suffers only a tenth of the damage of those built under prior codes. But for the average property built above current building codes, they’ve suffered only a fifth of the damage of those built at the current code. This illustrates that there might be a reason for the state to revisit building codes for flood risk but most of all what this study shows is how important it is to know the code your home is built to. It’s also super important to consider the code of the home prior to buying as well. From insurance costs to repair costs let alone the safety and long-term viability of the structure – the power of at least being built to the current code is huge. Speaking of huge...
- The GOP’s field of speaker candidates... It’s been three weeks since the Matt Gaetz-led gang of eight angry Republicans teamed with every House Democrat in ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Which means it’s been three weeks since anything other than failed votes for House speaker has happened in the People’s house. Will today be any different? Amid a power vacuum with Republican leadership in the House there’s been a flood of new candidates to enter the race. Not one, not two but a total of 9 candidates are vying for the post. Those nine are: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson, Jack Bergman, Southwest Florida’s Byron Donalds, Kevin Hern, Dan Meuser, Gary Palmer, Austin Scott, Pete Sessions and a partridge in a pear tree (which probably would have the best opportunity to obtain a majority of votes). Last night the nine pitched the Republican conference. At 9 this morning there will be a vote to attempt to identify a consensus candidate who could be brought to yet another floor vote later today. But of the nine there’s one that stands out above the rest.
- Byron is Better. Sporting a Heritage Action Score of 98% and a Liberty Score of 100%, Southwest Florida’s Byron Donalds is the best of the bunch currently vying for the post. In fact, if your objective is to have a rock-solid conservative leading the House, he’s the best option yet – as his record is more conservative than even Jim Jordan’s. Since entering the House of Representatives he’s consistently been the most conservative member of Florida’s delegation, but he’s also somewhat objectively been the most conservative member of any delegation. And what’s potentially notable about his candidacy is who has gotten behind him. What appears to be most if not all of Florida’s delegation. Notably that includes Representatives Vern Buchanan, Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart who didn’t back Jordan in any of the votes for speaker and contributed to his candidacy's demise. This doesn’t mean that Donalds will emerge as the conference's winner, and it doesn’t mean that even if he does, he’d have the votes on the full floor vote to become House speaker. But what does appear to be the case is that he has the ability to do with Florida’s dissenting delegation what Jordan couldn’t do. And with the 2nd largest Republican delegation in Congress, that’s a huge potential first step. And in the event that in the end Byron Donalds is able to become Speaker of the House, the country will have the most conservative House speaker since Newt Gingrich, if not ever. Byron’s Congressional record, though fairly short, is better. He represents the best opportunity to make lemonade out of the lemons that the House of Representatives has become.