Florida Shines, Mississippi Flunks in Building-Code Report Card

Virginia and Florida tied for top honors among 18 coastal states in a report on building code effectiveness published December 31 by the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), an insurance industry-funded education and advocacy non-profit group. Florida and Virginia each scored 95 out of a possible 100 points in the IBHS report card. Mississippi, where most counties still do not have any building code, finished dead last with only 5 points — well short of Gulf Coast neighbors Texas and Alabama (each with 18 points) and far shy of neighboring Louisiana (in ninth place with 73 points). The