Page 96 - Building Codes News Today

A storm surge event. the population here in miami beach has grown 35% since hurricane andrew. chris, you talked about those building codes. yes, the high-rises are able to withstand much more, but there has been so much development, you can ask anybody in miami beach, sometimes it floods on a s sun sunny day. storm surge a major concern. weve seen people putting up protection across miami beach but the word we keep hearing from miami beach officials is prepare for flooding. >> reporter: boy, i...

>> the reality with disasters like this is you save the lives before the disaster with the policy, the building codes, the zoning codes, and then the early warning. if you get some of those wrong, people will die, and theres not much you can do about it in the event. >> where people get angered, its like ray nagen down in new orleans. ill get 90% of the people out. 90 isnt winning. 50,000 people were left behind. im always struck by that picture of all those school buses. hundreds of school buse...

Andrew back in the early 90s. irma is a lot bigger. were talking about the infrastructure and the buildings in boca raton, were they built after? are you confident about the infrastructure in boca? >> yes. most of the newer buildings built in our city, of course, are under the miami-dade building codes which were the result of the catastrophe from hurricane andrew. the buildings are fine. the city of boca raton we spent a lot of money maintaining our inf infrastructure. we have been cleaning out...

Florida and there are 6 million people just in south florida where i am. 20 million people in the state. there have been lots of changes since hurricane andrew. the building codes have changed. their responses are different. the preparation before a storm is different of the all of that is helpful, but if this plows up through the entire state, then theres going to be considerable damage. certainly were going to continue to prepare for that and hope that perhaps there will be a little wobble and...

Northward. >> how often would buildings in a city like miami if it was a track that takes it over land, how strong are they? are they built to prepare for a cat 5? >> after hurricane andrew, florida upgraded their building codes, so the building codes are the strongest in the nation here. still, a category 5 hurricane is going to cause devastating damage. the buildings may well be strong enough for people to survive now, which is good. but there will be tremendous damage if the center and the ey...

I am told get out of miami beach. this storm is a nuclear hurricane. so were putting in pumps, portable generators, were offering sabrindbags. >> how easy is it for people to get out? >> were offering all sorts of services, buses, trolleys, protocol put together, were working with our seniors and homeless communities. and of course our special needs folks are already under a mandatory evacuation as of yesterday when that was called. were doing everything we can, were here for our residents and w...

The bahamas and reorganized itself, it stayed along the coast. we had significant damage on a-1-a, buildings up and down the coast. and dont forget the historic flooding we had in the carolinas, where we lost dozens of people in georgia, south and north carolina. the difference is off coast is catastrophic damage, and if it stays off the coast, it will be minimal or moderate damage. but if it slides a little bit, catastrophic damage on land. the tropical storm force winds are so wide, it would s...

Said the same thing, that fema could run out of money by next week, by tuesday. >> thats right, there could be millions of people in south florida without power, with a depleting food resource, we cannot afford to have any interruptions in the federal, state, or local response to this disaster. >> heather: do you think lessons have been learned from previous storms, we have been told this is stronger, its going to be worse than andrew. have we learned some lessons? >> we have made major investme...

Over and over. you almost need to run from 150. i mean, if this is truly the story, where do you hide from 150? thats why they talked about andrew. andrew slammed into the u.s. coast at 150. the people that died in homestead and coral gables, they tried to hide. it was tough. all those houses were knocked down. the building codes were different, but older homes are still standing. >> listen to the officials in florida. do not wait. get out if you are told to. chad myers, an important warning fro...

Larger than andrew, now churns through the atlantic toward florida. after andrew, florida toughened up the states building codes. they now have some of the toughest building codes in the country, and it matters because hurricane irma is heading right for them. this is going to be a test. well see how the tougher building codes stand up. hurricane irma has been at 185 miles an hour since middle of the day yesterday. tonight local officials have declared mandatory evacuation in miami-dade and miam...