A midsized community can reduce hail damage by up to 20% byadopting and enforcing often-overlooked building codes, says a newreport by the Wharton Risk Management and Decision ProcessesCenter.
|The savings could add up to between $4 million and $8 millionannually for a town of 50,000, says the University ofPennsylvania's risk-management school. However, most U.S. stateslack statewide building codes and instead leave hail-lossmitigation to individual municipalities.
|“Usually [hailstorms] don't create the media attentionassociated with other natural hazards such as tornadoes as fewpeople perish in these storms, but property damage can be as highas tornadoes, and more significantly hail storms happen much morefrequently,” says the report.
|Non-hurricane wind and hail losses in the U.S. are the secondhighest cat peril loss cost behind fire, says the Wharton Center.Property losses from hailstorms are estimated at $1.6 billion peryear, with the worst-ever recorded hail event costing $26 billionin claims in 2011. Two-thirds of the U.S. experiences at least onehailstorm annually, and 44% of the country gets hit by two to threein one year.
|Historically, says the report, roofing-related building codeshave been primarily concerned with fire resistance and thestructural loading of snow, wind and drainage, while the impact ofhail resistance is not much of a concern. Furthermore, theInternational Building Code (IBC) does not require roofingmaterials to be impact-proof. However, the report found thathomes with impact-resistant asphalt shingle roofs were 40% to 60%less likely to have a loss claim.
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