Panama City and other Panhandle residents have suffered from the consequences that Hurricane Michael and Hurricane Andrew have had on their homes. The strong winds of this storms wiped out the homes of some of this residents leaving them with nothing behind.
Leslie Chapman-Henderson head of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, spoke to the NPR about the importance of the building code, highlighting that Panama City is an area that has some of the weakest building codes. Chapman-Henderson pointed out that the panhandle area was given an exception to the code that established a minimum wind speed building needed to withstand and due to this the damage from hurricane Michael was much stronger.
An organization called Habitat for Humanity who is responsible for making “habitat strong” homes is currently working in Panama City to build this type of houses which go beyond the minimum requirement of construction. Read the full article here: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/01/728644987/no-move-to-tighten-building-codes-as-hurricane-season-starts-in-florida
