Research Needs to Support Immediate Occupancy Building Performance Objectives
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has identified areas for research that would help improve building performance in the event of a natural hazard. These areas must be addressed through cooperative efforts to reach the next level of building performance.

Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs
Although the cost is often cited as a barrier to building more fire-resistant homes, this study finds that there is little difference in the affordability of building a typical home compared to one that fire-resistant materials. The study also looked at the cost of retrofitting existing homes, and other benefits of fire-resistance, such as lowered maintenance costs.

Report of the LSC Disaster Task Force
Low-income individuals and families who struggle to meet their basic needs before disaster, can find it even more difficult to recover than most. While assistance might be available for these families, they often need the help of people and organizations that provide legal assistance to access it. The report from the Legal Services Corporation finds that agencies and organization that serve these populations need to be better prepared and offers recommendations to help them strengthen their knowledge base.

Surging Waters
This report examines three types of flooding —those from hurricanes, Central U.S. flooding, and coastal flooding. The report uses the different flood types to show how data collection and scientific research are key mitigate flooding.

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