Model Home Fortified Against High Winds to Be Built in Tulsa

An insurer-backed property safety research organization announced it is helping to build a model home in Oklahoma that will be designed to withstand high winds and hail.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) said the first FORTIFIED Home utilizing its high wind and hail standards will be built in Tulsa in the coming months.

To help defray the cost of building the home, State Farm Insurance presented a check for $15,000 as part of a grant to Tulsa Partners, $3,000 of which will be used to initiate construction the home

in partnership with Tulsa Habitat for Humanity. This model home will be located in the Kendall-Whittier area and upon completion will be open to the public and potential Habitat clients for 12-18 months.

IBHS launched its new FORTIFIED Home–High Wind & Hail programs at recent the National Tornado Summit in Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma has firsthand knowledge of how devastating these storms are, which is why we are very pleased IBHS has created these building standards to help homes stand up to Mother Nature’s fury and that State Farm, Tulsa Habitat for Humanity and Tulsa Partners are stepping up to strengthen our communities,” said Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John D. Doak in an announcement.

“Last year, we had nearly 800 tornadoes, hailstorms and high windstorms, which caused millions and millions of dollars in damage. We simply cannot keep rebuilding communities in the same places in the same ways and expect a different result. We’ve got to do better for our citizens and the new FORTIFIED programs will help us do that,” Doak said.

“The new FORTIFIED programs are being launched nationally with a focus on the Midwest and Great Plains areas, and a special concentration in Oklahoma and Colorado – two locations very vulnerable to extreme high winds and hailstorms,” said Tiffany O’Shea, IBHS director of Public Affairs.

The FORTIFIED building programs have three levels of designation – Bronze, Silver and Gold. “Builders and contractors work with home buyers and homeowners to choose the desired level of protection that best suits their budgets and resilience goals,” O’Shea said.

The new FORTIFIED Home–High Wind and Hail programs provide a uniform, voluntary, superior set of standards to help improve a home’s resilience by adding system-specific upgrades to minimum code requirements. One of the most unique and important aspects of the programs is that every FORTIFIED Home is inspected by an independent, third party, certified evaluator — before and after the upgrades are performed.

A “key feature of these programs is they start by focusing on the roof, which is the most important and most vulnerable component of every building. Your roof is your first line of defense during severe weather, so you want it to be as strong as possible,” O’Shea said.

She said “IBHS engineers believe property damage to homes from EF-0 and EF-1 tornadoes can be virtually eliminated if they are built or retrofitted using FORTIFIED standards.”

Source: IBHS

Topics Oklahoma