The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety hasreleased an update to its Rating the States report, which looks atbuilding codes of the hurricane-prone states from Texas toMaine. 

"This update provides each state a useful analysis of theirlatest building code activities and what steps they can take tobetter protect their communities. It also gives interested citizensuseful information so that they can understand the need for, anddemand, better building codes," says Julie Rochman, IBHS presidentand CEO. 

IBHS plans torelease a new report in 2015, so the nonprofit researchorganization is billing this report as "midtermupdate." 

Have states made progress with building code activity sinceIBHS' original report was released in January 2012? Then, IBHSassigned each of the 18 states studied a score on a 100-point scale. This report assesses the states onwhether they have taken positive action, negative action or noaction. 

Today we look at the Gulf Coast States. Monday we'll head northto post the progress, or lack thereof, of the next six states alongthe Atlantic. Click ahead to see more….

TEXAS

NO ACTION

No news is not good news for the Lonestar State since it scoreda paltry 18 in the original report. IBHA says Texas has talkedabout its tremendous potential exposure to a wide range of naturaldisasters, including hurricanes. But the states continues to haveno statewide residential building code. Only homeowners looking forinsurance from the last-resort insurer, the Texas WindstormInsurance Assoc., need to adhere to TWIA-adopted standards in orderto get coverage.

LOUISIANA

NEGATIVE ACTION

Louisiana, which scored 73 in 2012, took a step back in 2013with an emergency declaration by the State Code Council. It adoptedrecent versions of international building codes with new designwind speed maps. But it didn't include maps delineating high-winddesign or windborne regions. "The state created a deficiency inareas subject to high winds," says IBHS, adding that it doesn'tknow why a emergency declaration was made or why the state council"ignored technical input that identified the deficiency."

MISSISSIPPI 

NO ACTION 

IBHS says this report is meant educate states. Apparently theHospitality State's philosophy doesn't include building strongerhomes. It scored the lowest of any of the 18 states, with 4 in2012, and hasn't done anything to strength codes since, accordingto IBHS. The state has "virtually no statewide regulatory processin place for building codes." Legislation to adopt a statewide codewas mulled this year but it didn't go anywhere. Scary thing is,IBHS says most states that scored low in 2012 have, likeMississippi, taken no action.

ALABAMA 

POSITIVE ACTION 

Alabama needed some positive action it after scoring 18 pointsin the original report. The Heart of Dixie adopted a statewideresidential code, the Alabama Energy and Residential Code, for alljurisdictions statewide.  

FLORIDA

POSITIVE ACTION 

According to IBHS, the Sunshine State is one others shouldaspire to in terms of building codes. Florida scored 98 in 2012 andcontinue to be leader in codes.  It is in the process ofadopting the 2013 Florida Building Code, with a projected effectivedate of march 2014, based on more recent edition of theInternational Code Council.