International Code Council
meeting in St. Louis, Missouri
September 13, 1999

Address of: James Lee Witt, Director of Federal Emergency Management Agency

Just weeks ago, Americans watched in horror as a powerful earthquake shook northwestern Turkey to its core. Buildings collapsed on top of those who worked, lived and slept inside. Casualties mounted with the steady certainty of each morning's newspaper: First a few thousand gone, then a few thousand more, until the death toll topped 10,000 lives. Water and sewage lines ruptured. Those fortunate enough to survive are now bracing for the twin dangers of epidemic and exposure.
Americans responded with two uniquely American qualities: "Compassion and Confidence". Compassion poured out with donations of time, money and resources. Confidence came as we watched this tragedy unfold on television and thought: "This only happens someplace else". My message today is simple. That confidence is misplaced. In an instant, we could be proven wrong, our confidence shattered and the tragedy may be outside our living room windows rather than on the television inside. The city where we meet today straddles dozens of fault lines that could rattle the Midwest in an instant. A few weeks ago, Hurricane Bret pushed ashore on the open acres of Kennedy County rather than the dense population centers of South Texas. A few years before that, the Northridge earthquake struck Southern California in the early morning hours when schools and office buildings were mostly empty rather than jam-packed.
In truth, American lives are separated from a catastrophic disaster like we saw in Turkey by only the thinnest of lines and the brightest of hopes. The thin line is time. The bright hope is leadership. It's only a matter of time before a disaster of equal magnitude strikes. But leadership, the determination, and possibilities with which this room is brimming on this historic day is the sturdiest construction material, and the strongest engineering technique, we know. When disaster strikes, no matter where or how, building codes and local code officials are America's first line of defense against tragedy. I know. In seven years as head of FEMA, I've seen the consequences of codes in action in every type of disaster. I've learned there's a pretty simple formula for telling which communities enact and enforce strong building codes from those that don't. Structures built to strong codes still stand. People who live and work in them are still alive. And communities that recognize the life-or-death consequences of building codes pick up the pieces and recover from disasters, while communities that ignore those codes struggle for months and even years.
At FEMA, we're working to change the way Americans think about disasters. We've made prevention the focus of emergency management in the United States, and we believe strong, rigorously enforced building codes are central to that effort. Strong building codes are a foundation of Project Impact: Building Disaster-Resistant Communities. As you know, Project Impact is a partnership between the federal government, state and local leaders, and business and communities. In more than 120 Project Impact communities, these partners are ending the incentives to build in flood plains, helping retrofit homes and business to withstand the next disaster and encouraging communities to work hand in hand with the environment. Strong building codes are our first line of attack in prevention, and code officials are our front-line soldiers in Project Impact.
That is why I am so pleased to announce that FEMA will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the ICC later this afternoon. We know that code adoption is a local prerogative, and code enforcement is a local responsibility. And we stand ready to be your partner.
We're working to improve codes in Project Impact communities across America. In Freeport, New York, building codes now require hurricane straps to make the community's houses more hurricane-resistant. In New Hanover County, North Carolina, another hurricane-prone area, new residential building codes require new construction to be built two or three feet above the base flood elevations. Salt Lake City recently passed a $136 million bond measure that will allow local schools to be built to UBC Seismic Level 4, rather than the currently required Level 3. And Seattle, Washington, has developed an expedited process that will make it easier, cheaper and faster to obtain a building permit to retrofit seismically weak homes.
Believe me, I used to be a local official, and I know code enforcement isn't a popular job. Leadership rarely is. But we also know lives are at stake, a lesson learned again in Turkey and Greece.
Turkey's seismic code is actually comparable to our own. The problem appears to have been lax enforcement, especially during the latest building boom around Istanbul. Buildings that collapsed are showing signs of code violations. Many new ones were built with inadequate strength concrete and reinforcements. In some older buildings, additional stories were apparently added on without the necessary permits or engineering.
These catastrophes are urgent warnings that we cannot, we must not allow code officials to be bullied by those who would make a quick buck by constructing accidents waiting to happen. To them we must reply: "We embrace development and jobs as a means of enriching Americans' lives, not of endangering them". We must not wait until tragedy strikes to adopt adequate building codes.
We recognize the historic promise of this day. This first meeting of the three model codes represents our determination to choose leadership as America prepares for disasters. I have come here on FEMA's behalf to give you our thanks and promise our partnership. We build this new partnership on a foundation of FEMA's history with the codes. Our work at your side goes back more than 15 years.
In the early 1980s, our flood program worked with the model codes to include flood-resistant design criteria. And we began our work with the Building Seismic Safety Council. That partnership helped to strengthen earthquake provisions in the model codes. More recently, both our earthquake and flood programs have worked closely with the ICC to ensure the International Codes included adequate provisions to address both these hazards.
After the Northridge earthquake, which exposed weaknesses in the steel-framed buildings, I went directly to the President and told him that problem had to be addressed. As a result, FEMA has invested over $11 million in the SAC Steel Project, which is nearing completion today. FEMA is supporting the development of performance-based criteria that will empower building owners to choose a higher degree of seismic resistance. Codes require them to build for life safety.
We want owners, especially critical facilities like hospitals, to be able to choose stricter standards, such as continued operability. We applied this principle for the first time as FEMA rebuilt hospitals across Southern California after Northridge. We've worked with wind engineering experts at Texas Tech, and others, to develop and market materials that provide guidance on the construction of tornado "safe rooms." We've worked with the code groups and your partners, including the National Association of Home Builders, to formulate a residential code that provides for new buildings to be resistant to the seismic and flood-force levels we've established. And we've supported the establishment of a Multihazard Mitigation Council to address the sometimes competing techniques for different natural hazards. We know how important it is to resolve the contradictions builders or code officials can face when standards for natural hazards are in conflict.
Today, you begin a historic process whose goal is to lift model codes to their next level: a single code whose development, we believe, will improve compliance, result in better construction and prevent losses from natural disasters. As you reach for this higher goal, we at FEMA promise a higher partnership to help you reach it.
Today, I am committing to you that FEMA will support a nationwide effort to promote the adoption and implementation of the historic code you will be producing this week. This public awareness effort will target the public, state legislators, local officials and the building and development community. We will develop guidance that explains how the International Codes can be used to meet existing requirements.
Today, I am committing FEMA to support the work of the International Code Congress. We will help you develop training materials and courses for local code officials on the new codes. We will make funding available to the ICC to develop and implement a certification program for code officials. We believe certification is critical to the credibility of local code officials. But we also believe this program cannot exist in a vacuum.
Therefore, I am calling on the insurance industry to recognize this certification program as part of its Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule program, and to make code official certification a factor in premium rate breaks for communities. We will make funding available to every Project Impact community to allow local code officials to participate in these training and certification programs.
Today, we pledge a coordinated, comprehensive effort as big and ambitious as the work you have undertaken. Make no mistake: We promise to stand by your side, but we would not attempt to substitute our expertise for yours. As a former local official, I believe you know best what your community needs. We do not want the federal government to control or mandate building codes. Instead, we want the federal government to be a partner in your life-saving work.
These things we promise as you begin the historic work of developing a single code. But there are things I can't promise. I can't promise you popularity: Code enforcement always brings more gratitude after disaster strikes than it does before. I can't promise you headlines. The cameras will always turn out in force for a disaster's devastation rather than the real news story: the disaster in which every life is spared. I can't promise you that disaster won't strike. We can promise that when disaster does strike, we'll be ready. And we can promise you the most reliable reward of all: the certainty that the work you begin in this room will prevent disaster damage that it will turn what might have been widespread heartache into minor disruption and that your work will save Americans' lives.
We can promise that stronger, better enforced building codes will promote prosperity, not endanger it. Businesses will not be shut down from storms. Jobs will be saved, and the economic and social fabric of the community will be secure. These are the rewards of leadership: not popularity; but possibility not celebrity; but the simple, stronger satisfaction of a job well done. The work you begin will not be easy.
There are enough ideas in this room to guarantee a few disagreements. But we begin with consensus on the most important principle. And that our respect for life is exactly what's at stake. And I deeply hope and firmly believe that Americans will some day look back on this event and view it as the day we took the potential victims of natural disasters out of the hands of fate and took responsibility for our own future. I deeply hope and firmly believe that lives will be saved in natural disasters because of work that begins in this room.
We know we can't prevent disasters from striking, but we can prevent damage before they hit. We know building codes and local code officials are the first line of defense in this effort. Today we reject that thin line, the simple matter of time that separates Americans from a catastrophic disaster like Turkey. Instead we begin the hard work of building a new future for America's communities on the strongest foundation of all: your leadership.
As you embark on this historic journey, I congratulate you, I thank you, and I pledge to stand by your side, working as your partner. If we do nothing, it's only a matter of time before tragedy strikes. But if we embrace the promise of leadership, it's only a matter of time before we build an America resistant to disasters.
Thank you.