Making the play: establishing a resilience strategy on and off the field

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A couple of years ago as the NFL season began, I encouraged you to form your best Fantasy Football team of storm protection – enlisting the same strategies you use to beat this week’s opponent with the decisions you make to prevent Mother Nature from barging through the front doors of your home.

Resilience – like choosing the best players week-to-week – is not a matter of luck, but the result of knowledge and informed choices. Decades of Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) science have proven that reducing the impacts of severe weather and wildfire is not only possible but doable.

Let’s get into the stats and scope out a strategy.

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Picking a consistent player

All eyes are on Aaron Rodgers as he returns after almost a year away due to a devastating Achilles’ heel injury. Will the 17-year NFL veteran perform up to his reputation? We won’t know until he hits the field. But homeowners don’t have to “wait and see” whether their property will be on the winning team.

IBHS science has identified ways to bend down the risk of severe weather and wildfire by strengthening a structure’s most significant vulnerabilities. You can minimize storm damage on any budget. Take DIY steps like cleaning out your gutter or caulking cracks or gaps on your home’s exterior. Make a long-term investment by re-roofing to the FORTIFIED standard or installing a wind-rated garage door – like Green Bay’s $220-million investment in Jordan Love to build the team’s long-term resilience. The first step is to get started, which is made easier with IBHS’s Ready guides.

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Knowing your opponent

When selecting players for the upcoming week, fantasy league managers evaluate the team they’ll face. Do they have a good running game? What about their Zone Defense?

Like the Kansas City Chiefs defending a Super Bowl title, homeowners must understand the weather their homes face and the potential damage. Most people trust their state, city, or town has rules or codes to ensure homes are built to be safe and strong. Yet, despite their proven effectiveness, less than 35 percent of Americans live in communities with an adopted modern building code. What does this mean for you? Your local building code could leave your property vulnerable.

Check out IBHS’s 5th edition of Rating the States to see the blueprint on how Atlantic and Gulf Coast states are stacking up.

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Beating the score

Each week during the season, fantasy league players are racking up points – whether it’s for a tackle, sack, or passing yards. What would be your home’s score in resilience?

IBHS’s designation programs – FORTIFIED and Wildfire Prepared Home – leverage decades of research to provide systems that go beyond typical building codes to combat the destruction natural disasters can create. FORTIFIED is a beyond-code construction and re-roofing method to strengthen properties against severe weather. Wildfire Prepared Home, the first-ever wildfire mitigation designation program, helps protect against embers, the leading cause of ignition during a wildfire.

Each establishes a system – whether that’s a collection of construction upgrades or preventative measures for the home and yard – of mitigation tactics that give the home the best chance of survival during the next event. That’ll earn you a touchdown.

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Establishing a backup roster

As fantasy football managers make decisions throughout the NFL season, they plan for both the short and long term. Will Kool-Aid McKinstry make a star debut this season after being named First-team Associated Press All-American in his last season at the University of Alabama? Can the team depend on the cornerback to close the cushion on the next play?

Resilience requires mitigation both before the season begins and when a storm is on the way. It only takes one storm to disrupt your life and severe weather events have increased in both severity and frequency, occurring all year. Taking steps before the traditional peak of hurricane season, for example, requires strengthening key areas like windows, garage doors or the roof. Then, when storms are on the way, checking tasks off the last-minute checklist provides the extra peace of mind you’ll have a home to come back to after it passes. That’s the 4-3 defense.

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From selecting a linebacker for the next round to the right wind-rated garage door for your area, homeowners are not powerless against severe weather. The science-backed choices we make today could mean a more resilient community for generations to come.