BRADENTON BEACH – Beginning with the mobile home parks, individual damage assessments are being conducted by the city along with state damage assessment teams.
The city of Bradenton Beach and vendor partners with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) began conducting post-hurricane assessments of properties on Nov. 14.
“They are starting at the north end with Sandpiper,” according to the City of Bradenton Beach Building Department Facebook page. “The city has been broken into six zones, after Sandpiper is completed, they will begin, in teams of two, the rest of the city. Each team will be assigned a different zone.”
The 20 state inspectors from AC Disaster Consulting may be identified by their vests and lanyards. If you are not home, or do not want them in your home, damage assessments will be conducted on the outside of the home.
According to the City of Bradenton Beach Building Department:
“Damage assessments are conducted to:
• Guide City and County response efforts;
• Determine the severity and magnitude of the event;
• Quantify the damage to homes and businesses impacted by the disaster;
• Assess the need for federal assistance and estimate disaster impact to businesses, individuals and families; and
• Determine whether local resources will be sufficient to effectively respond and recover from the incident.”
The assessment determines what was damaged, as well as when, where and how damage occurred. These assessments start the eligibility determination for disaster recovery programs, such as FEMA’s Public Assistance and Individual Assistance Programs, and other potential programs, according to the city Building Department Facebook page.
Substantial improvement and substantial damage determinations will be confirmed at the time of building permit in accordance with City Ordinance No. 21-536, which states:
For applications for building permits to improve buildings and structures, including alterations, movement, enlargement, replacement, repair, change of occupancy, additions, rehabilitations, renovations, substantial improvements, repairs of substantial damage and any other improvement of or work on such buildings and structures, the Floodplain Administrator, in coordination with the Building Official, shall:
1) Estimate the market value, or require the applicant to obtain an appraisal of the market value prepared by a qualified independent appraiser, of the building or structure before the start of construction of the proposed work; in the case of repair, the market value of the building or structure shall be the market value before the damage occurred and before any repairs are made;
2) Compare the cost to perform the improvement, the cost to repair a damaged building to its pre-damaged condition, or the combined costs of improvements and repairs, if applicable, to the market value of the building or structure;
3) Determine and document whether the proposed work constitutes substantial improvement or repair of substantial damage; the determination requires an evaluation of previous permits issued for improvements and repairs as specified in the definition of “substantial improvement;” and
4) Notify the applicant if it is determined that the work constitutes substantial improvement or repair of substantial damage and that compliance with the flood resistant construction requirements of the Florida Building Code and this ordinance is required.
“We greatly appreciate your willingness to allow our community inspectors to assess the condition of your property as this is required by the NFIP to protect lives and investment from future flood damages,” the city Building Department Facebook post continues.
“The City of Bradenton Beach must enforce these requirements for federally backed flood insurance to be made available to city residents and property owners at discounted rates based upon the Community Rating System (CRS). Please visit https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance for more information or if you have any questions about this process or the inspectors, please contact us immediately by calling the Bradenton Beach Building Department at 941-778-1005.”
