Has anyone compared losses from areas that have strict inspection requirements, to areas that have no inspections or very limited ones? I would be real curious to see the outcome of any study.
Homestead Florida and Hurricane Andrew.
The houses that pretty much exploded were far less than code. There were not enough nails in the roof sheathing, missing hurricane clips etc. That area had very sloppy enforcement with a lot of drive by inspections and such. The result was the whole government structure was changed. Unincorporated Dade county was merged with the city of Miami. Inspectors, state wide were licensed and certified. They ended the practice of the inspector just being the unemployed nephew of the mayor. Eventually they established a state wide building code with no local exceptions.
Subsequent hurricanes did minimal damage to houses built after the Andrew reforms were established and the codes were strengthened even though Florida had one of the most stringent codes before that.
