Rebuilding Stronger: Building Codes & Mitigation

Disasters reveal the consequences of building decisions made decades earlier. Homes built to modern codes consistently suffer less damage than older structures. After Hurricane Andrew (1992) exposed catastrophic code failures in South Florida, strengthened building codes reduced wind damage in subsequent hurricanes by 72%. The concept of 'building back better' — using recovery as an opportunity to increase resilience rather than simply restoring the pre-disaster condition — is now central to FEMA's recovery philosophy. This may mean elevating a flood-prone house above the base flood elevation, installing impact-resistant windows in hurricane zones, or retrofitting an unreinforced masonry building with seismic bracing.