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Builders Assist Flood Recovery Effort in Atlanta Region
At the end of last month when severe flooding brought an estimated $250 million in damages to homes and businesses in 17 counties around the metro Atlanta area, the local home builders associations in the most severely-affected counties immediately stepped in to help their communities recover and rebuild.
With the help of the NAHB staff, the HBAs — the Greater Atlanta HBA (GAHBA), the Westside HBA in Douglasville and the Paulding County BA in Dallas — quickly organized consumer and contractor workshops, posted flood recovery information on their Web sites and reached out to the media with information for home owners.
A builder workshop by the Atlanta builders on Oct. 15 drew more than 100 contractors. The event featured speakers from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), the Small Business Administration (SBA) and CERM, a local consulting company specializing in environmental risk management.
David Ellis, the association’s executive officer, said that many of the attendees came in order to find out the proper process for rebuilding and to garner information that would help them work more effectively with home owners.
“The workshop provided information that the contractors need to know to be able to address home owners’ questions about fixing their homes,” he said. “For example, many home owners don’t know that they need to register with FEMA in order to get assistance.”
Speakers from FEMA explained how assistance can include grants to help pay for temporary housing, home repairs and other disaster-related expenses. The SBA offers low-interest loans to help with residential and business losses not fully covered by insurance.
The Westside HBA partnered with Douglas County to sponsor two workshops, one for contractors and one for consumers.
On Oct.7, more than 100 contractors came to the workshop for builders who were interested in doing flood repair and reconstruction work in Douglas, Carroll, Paulding and Cobb counties. Speakers from FEMA, the SBA, development services departments in the affected counties and NAHB addressed topics including local building, permitting and licensing requirements, the availability of federal disaster assistance programs and issues relating to insurance claims, contracts and licensing.
Executive Officer Chris Collier said that in addition to providing attendees with the information they needed in order to do business in the flood-damaged areas, the workshop was beneficial to the HBA as well.
“We were able to build a stronger relationship with the county governments, and also signed up 10 new members,” he said.
Designed as a “one stop shop for anyone who suffered damage from the recent flooding,” the daylong Oct. 17 consumer workshop gave residents access to HBA-member contractors and local resources and provided the opportunity to apply for FEMA and SBA assistance.
“We focused on warning home owners about unscrupulous contractors and recommended they use our member referral program to contact our members who are licensed builders with workman’s comp and general liability insurance,” Collier said.
Four local charities distributed food and clothing at the event, Lowe’s and Home Depot experts demonstrated do-it-yourself damage repairs and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents and state health office officials answered questions about mold remediation and other flood-related health issues.
For more information, e-mail Gwyn Donohue at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8447.
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