Ann Farrar

Gulf Coast Resilient Home Building Conference March 19-21, 2010

March 8th, 2010 - Ann Farrar  

The Gulf Coast Resilient Home Building Conference will be held March 19-21, 2010 at the Mississippi Coast Convention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi.  This Conference is presented in cooperation with the Home Builders Association of the Mississippi Coast 23rd Annual Home and Garden Show.  The purpose of the Conference is to help put communities along the Gulf coast on a path toward greater resilience to natural disasters through the construction of strong homes that can withstand high winds and water.  The Conference will feature a combination of education sessions, a demonstration exhibit and product vendors. 

The Conference Planning Committee would like to thank the Home Builders Association of the Mississippi Coast for their scholarship donations within the continuing education component of the Conference.  Registration deadline is March 12, 2010; information regarding the Conference Education Sessions can be found at  http://www.resilientus.com/rhbc-education-sessions.html.

Warren Edwards

A Resilient Building Certification Program

December 22nd, 2009 - Warren Edwards  

From the very beginning the Community and Regional Resilience Institute has been progressing toward a way for communities to be certified as resilient. That is one of the most significant reasons to establish a sound intellectual construct in the “Common Framework for Community Resilience” that will lay the foundations for an eventual certification program. Because of this, we are always interested in programs that will look at aspects of community resilience certification.

At a recent meeting in Atlanta, an expert panel consisting of representatives from government, academia, insurance, non-profit organizations, and designers, came together to address aspects of what a resilient building certification program should entail. The meeting was hosted by the Resilient Home Program, a partnership between Clemson University, North Carolina State University (NC State), Savannah River National Laboratory and the US Army Corp of Engineers – Construction Engineering Research Lab and funded by the Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI).

The meeting was part of the ongoing efforts of the Resilient Home Program, which was established to determine the way in which home owners prepare for, and recover from, natural disasters; to find ways to make new and existing homes more resilient; to educate the public on home resiliency; and to encourage homeowners to take steps to make their homes more resilient. read the entire article >

Warren Edwards

Resilient Homes are Key to Resilient Communities

April 15th, 2009 - Warren Edwards  

We believe that one of the most important things a community has to do to reestablish itself after a disaster (after saving lives and property to the greatest extent it can) is to get its people back to work. Productive enterprise, as much as any other activity of the community reestablishes the normal rhythms and fabric of the community. Getting all of the segments of the community back to work quickly begins to reconstitute the community’s economic base and prevents long term job loss because of population dislocation. A working community says “we’re back and we’re recovering.”

Key to getting back to work is having some place to live. A resilient community plans and prepares to get its people back into their homes as quickly as possible. People who get back into their own homes even under less than optimal conditions are much more ready to participate in the process of restarting the community.

A CARRI affiliate, The Resilient Home Program, is a coalition of the willing working to improve the life of homeowners following natural disasters. Combining the resources of the Savannah River National Laboratory, North Carolina State University, the US Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory and Clemson University, the Resilient Home team is examining the complete spectrum of ways to get people back into their homes quickly following a disaster. These include: response – stabilizing the home and rendering it a safe interim shelter; rebuilding – rebuilding with available resources in a more durable manner than before the disaster; prevention – protecting the home from the short- and long-term effects of a disaster; and assessment – determining the extent of damage that occurred to the home in a quick and cost effective manner.

Getting people back into their homes is important. You can find more about the Resilient Home Program through a link on the CARRI web site, http://www.resilientus.org/.