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Nobody builds houses in a hurricane. And as obvious as this sounds, it leads to a less obvious outcome. What might seem like adequately strong home construction details when the weather’s fine, sometimes prove inadequate when wind and rain get especially energetic. Encouraging the construction of stronger houses is the philosophy behind the Safer Living Homes campaign, and it’s something you’re going to see more and more often because our world is changing. Increasingly destructive weather events are a verified reality all over the globe these days. Fact is, disaster damage has been doubling every five to seven years since the 1960s, and a good portion of this trend affects houses. Windows blow in during hurricanes, shingles tear off during typhoons and roofs collapse under the weight of unexpected ice storms. In many of these cases, damage could have been avoided or greatly reduced if a few additional construction features had been worked into the design.
Safer Living Homes are the product of a partnership between The Co-operatorsand the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) -- an organization funded by the home insurance industry in Canada. One of the many roles of the ICLR is to identify ways in which property damage and personal injury can be reduced through enhanced home design and construction practices. This is what Safer Living Homes are all about.
At the moment, two Safer Living Homes have been built in Canada – one in PEI and the other in Sudbury. Four more are planned for other areas during 2007, with the aim of showing government and industry how to build safer more resilient houses. The Co-operators partners with individual insurance policy holders who’ve had their homes destroyed, offering to rebuild to enhanced ICLR standards at no extra charge.
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