How NCBPA and Members Are Helping with Hurricane Florence Recovery Efforts

On behalf of NCBPA’s Staff, Board of Directors and Members, our thoughts and well wishes go out to those affected by Hurricane Florence. While our staff in Raleigh was unaffected, many of our friends, families and business partners were not so fortunate. To aid in communicating short-term recovery needs and long-term preparedness and resiliency opportunities, NCBPA has compiled the following resources to help our industry companies and professionals play a role.

Have a resource, need or opportunity to contribute? Please email us at Info@BuildingNC.org and we will include it here.

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Supporting Our Members in Need:

Our staff continues to call our Eastern North Carolina and South Carolina with offers of assistance and support. If we haven’t reached you yet, please get in touch if there is anything that we, or our other members, can to do support your business, your staff and those in your local communities impacted by the Hurricane.

Ways to Get Involved:

Sam Myers of Allied Partner company Retrotec is from the Wilmington area and is coordinating support efforts that include communications to residents on critical repair recommendations from a building science perspective. He’s also looking for contractors in affected and non-affected areas that are willing to offer their services in recovery efforts in the coming weeks, months and years. You can find more information on Sam’s efforts through his LinkedIn post here and contact him directly at Sam@Retrotec.com.
NCBPA is collecting best practices, recommendations, case studies and more related to disaster preparedness and recovery in homes and buildings to include in our consumer education websites. Send any information your company would like to provide to consumers and other contractors to be included on our residential website www.HomeEnergyNC.org and our commercial buildings website under development.
Some of NCBPA’s product manufacturers and partners are also looking for building scientists to contribute to planned research studies, on-the-ground assessments and other activities that may yield immediate support and lasting improvements to construction standards and codes. If you’d like to participate, please email us at Info@BuildingNC.org and we’ll add you to a list of interested contractors.
Learn how you can support updated building codes and disaster reform through the International Code Council. The ICC is lobbying for passage of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act to “break the cycle and invest in a stronger America that will save lives, property, and taxpayer dollars.”
Partner organization NC Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) is requesting stories from impacted hurricane Florence residents to spread their message in aiding support and recovery efforts. NCSEA is encouraged by the show of support seen across the state, and are eager to hear your stories and amplify the voices of those seeking help themselves, or those seeking an opportunity to help others. They have heard from several of their members and partners about how their installations weathered the storm, and would love to hear how your installation held up, too. If you need support, have a story to tell, pictures to share, or have help to offer please reach out to Jordan Jones at jordan@energync.org or 919-832-7601.

Make a Donation:

The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster is collecting donations for a variety of recovery organizations and charities.
The Red Cross is actively working in both Eastern North Carolina and South Carolina and is accepting donations and volunteer support.
North Carolina Home Builders Association (NCHBA) has established the Hurricane Florence Relief Fund to help area builders and residents recover from the storm.

Looking Ahead with Disaster Preparedness:

Industry professionals can also participate in longer-term initiatives targeting improvements to how homes and buildings in North Carolina and South Carolina are built to better withstand disasters like Hurricane Florence. Here are three member-funded initiatives currently underway at NCBPA that industry professionals can participate in. Contact us to get involved in:

Resiliency: NCBPA’s Abby Coulter is presenting on building resiliency on Oct 9^th at the Retrofit Conference in Charlotte. She will be presenting a wealth of research that identifies ways for our industry to improve building and community resiliency in the face of natural disasters like Hurricane Florence, seasonal droughts and other environmental issues. Email Abby at Abby@BuildingNC.org to get involved in NCBPA’s efforts to bring this important topic to the forefront of our industry’s initiatives on codes, policy, consumer education, workforce development and more.
Codes: NCBPA’s code development work continues to grow with a focus on energy efficiency, green building and high performance construction. Hurricane Florence’s impact on the Carolinas has clearly brought new attention to the standards that determine how homes and buildings in both states are built new and retrofitted. Our industry has a great deal of building science, durability, health, safety and other knowledge that can be incorporated into code requirements over time. Get involved in our efforts to enable improved codes in the Carolinas by participating in committee meetings, making recommendations for code changes and speaking out during public comment periods. Contact us to get involved in our code development efforts.
- Reference this article, published nationally just a week before the Hurricane, for insight into some of the concerns brought to the forefront of the construction industry regarding coastal developments, code standards and the impacts of natural disasters like Hurricane Florence.
C-PACE: NCBPA’s Ryan Miller has been in discussions with several Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy/Capital Expenditures (C-PACE) stakeholders about supporting our efforts to enable this program through legislation that we’ve introduced but that is currently on hold due to a lack of funding. We included disaster recovery, resiliency, drought mitigation, high performance roofing and windows, renewable energy and other related measures into our bill language in late 2016 and believe that the bill would offer some financial support for private business owners looking to rebuild and remodel after the Hurricane. The bill would also help business owners in other parts of the state implement resiliency measures to improve their abilities to withstand droughts, floods and other natural disasters. Click here to learn more about C-PACE and contribute to our fundraising campaign that may allow us to enable C-PACE in 2019 as an available financing program for commercial building owners.

What Suggestions and Recommendations Do You Have?

Let us know how NCBPA and our industry network can be helpful in both North Carolina and South Carolina. Email Info@BuildingNC.org or call 919-841-6207 with your questions, comments and suggestions.

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We wish our member companies, their staff and their friends and family best wishes in their recovery efforts. Please contact us if you would like to work with us on these or any other recovery and preparedness initiatives.

Sincerely,