![]() Previous research by Kijewski-Correa and Javeline found that homes are minimally protected and when they are damaged, homeowners fail to use insurance payouts to “build back better” by investing in structural upgrades to make their home hurricane resilient. Aransas County, TX neighborhood after a hurricane. Understanding how various communities view the acute threat of climate change is another aspect of the study. The first and most important step is helping them understand how to make those choices and, more importantly, incentivize them to make those choices.” Homeowners have to invest beyond what current building codes require. That’s where a lot of the big challenges currently lie. “Even when codes are adopted, people don’t realize that building codes aren’t intended to prevent damage in major hurricanes - which creates losses for the home. “Eight of the 13 coastal states most in harm’s way don’t have binding, statewide building codes,” Kijewski-Correa said. Insights and analysis from the survey could help inform solutions to flaws in insurance and regulatory systems outpaced by the current rate of climate change. The study is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Strengthening American Infrastructure program, supporting interdisciplinary, fundamental research in computer science, information science and engineering with social, behavioral and economic sciences. “If we’re talking about replication there’s no place better than the Deep South, no place better than Louisiana - the site where five named storms made landfall in 2020.” “This is the first time we are looking at a community hit by a sequence of hurricanes with the compounding effects of wind, storm surge and flooding,” Kijewski-Correa said. We’ve created a culture of safety netting that reacts to symptoms without addressing the root causes.”įor the study, Kijewski-Correa co-principal investigator Debra Javeline, associate professor of political science and the survey research firm NORC will engage residents in Lake Charles, Louisiana - an area hit by back-to-back storms during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. We need to drive more proactive investment because right now, the mounting losses in our coastal communities has bankrupted insurance systems. “In the last two years, we’ve set records for the number of billion-dollar loss events. “Coastal homeowners are largely unprotected right now,” said Tracy Kijewski-Correa, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences and global affairs, and lead of the study. Still, research shows homeowners are not investing in upgrades to protect their homes from storm systems that continue to intensify exponentially as a result of climate change.Ī team of civil and environmental engineers at the University of Notre Dame is racing against time to create a new framework for community recovery from natural disasters, educate homeowners on risks and encourage incentives for climate-resilient homes before the next extreme event hits. The annual cost of damages caused by hurricanes alone is estimated to rise from $28 billion to $39 billion. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects up to 10 hurricanes this season, with as many as six storms between Category 3 and Category 6, threatening lives and increasing the risk to residential and commercial infrastructure in coastal regions. Aransas County, TX home after a hurricane.
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