North Carolina Building Deregulation Bill Puts Helene Recovery on Shaky Ground
RALEIGH, NC — State lawmakers are considering a bill that would be the latest effort to block modernizing building code requirements for homes and other buildings being rebuilt following Hurricane Helene, ensuring less resilience to future extreme weather events. The proposed bill would weaken building and rebuilding recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene and jeopardize North Carolina’s standing in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and eligibility for federal grants.
Senate Bill 266 would exempt homes damaged by Hurricane Helene from being rebuilt to even current building codes, which date to 2015 and have been blocked by Republican lawmakers from being modernized.
The following is a statement by Rob Moore, director of flooding solutions at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“Families recovering and rebuilding from disasters like Hurricane Helene deserve to know that the home they build is safe and can withstand the next storm. Weakening building standards will make it far more likely these homes will be damaged again and families displaced. They will make homes more susceptible to flood damage and increase the cost of flood insurance or make them unable to get coverage in the first place.”
Background:
SB 266 is the latest measure in a decades-long trend for North Carolina lawmakers who have focused on cutting costs at the expense of public safety and resiliency. The state already has some of the weakest building codes in the country. In 2023, the General Assembly passed House Bill 488 to block any updates to the state’s building codes until 2031. In 2024, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 166 that further weakened already out of date construction codes. North Carolina’s building codes were last updated in 2015.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).