FEMA Issues Report on Building Codes and the National Flood Insurance Program
Dec 2, 2013
Today, December 2, 2013, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) Building Science Branch announced the release of a new report to Congress entitled “Including Building Codes in the National Flood Insurance Program.”
To view the report, click here.
Further, the report describes the impact, effectiveness and feasibility of including widely used and nationally recognized building codes as part of the National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”) floodplain management criteria. It also found that the overall impacts of including building codes as part of the NFIP would be positive in helping to reduce physical flood losses and other hazard losses. In turn, this would be expected to positively affect land use planning and the regulatory climate.
Current model building codes, such as the International Codes used in the United States, have flood provisions that are consistent with or exceed NFIP requirements for buildings and structures, and are effective in reducing flood-related damage because of the specific mitigation provisions required in those codes for compliance.
FEMA prepared this report and delivered it to Congress on October 21, 2013 in response to Section 100235 of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (HR 4348) Report on Inclusion of Building Codes in the NFIP. It can now be accessed and downloaded for free from the FEMA Library at http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/85960.
To visit FEMA’s Building Science Building Code Resources page for more information on the flood resistant provisions of the building codes, click here. For additional multi-hazard mitigation information and resources visit the Building Science Branch homepage by clicking here.
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