[This story originated with SMART VENTS which are pictured in the story and featured in the home]
This recent FEMA Best Practice Story discusses how, for homeowner Bernard Bertino and builder Ray Guzman, building to Sea Bright’s elevated code standards saved their adjoining townhouses from the massive flooding. “We originally wanted to add one foot of freeboard, but the town made us add two feet,” Guzman’s architect Paul Damiano stated. Freeboard is an increase in the elevation of a structure above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). The vents allowed floodwaters to flow easily through the structure by equalizing the build up of pressure from the force of water throughout the flood.
Surrounding neighborhood homes without compliant flood vents were not so fortunate. “If you look across the street, those garage doors were devastated,” Guzman said. “If we didn’t have those flood vents, the homes would not have been able to take the pressure from the water. They really saved us. We’re like a rose in the middle of a disaster.”
