With a menacing hurricane Dorian approaching, the New York Times reached out to RAF Chair Aris Papadopoulos, who is also the Distinguished Expert in Resilience at Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute (FIU-EEI), to ask about building codes in the Bahamas. Clink on below photo for full article.
He noted that in 2003 Bahamas adopted and began enforcing the Miami-Dade Building Code, the strictest in the country (and perhaps world) for hurricanes. However, many older buildings and informal settlements for refugees remain vulnerable.
Most hurricane-prone counties in the Gulf and Atlantic Coast have still not adopted the Miami-Dade codes, placing their communities at continued disaster risk.
The severity and duration of Dorian is unlike anything seen before and will test the difference stronger codes can make.
