In this episode of Disaster Discussions we highlight the partnership between IBHS, Triple-I, and the U.S. Small Business Administration with an encore presentation of the LinkedIn audio event: Weathering the Storms: Strategies for Small Business Resilience. Then, we talk with Chuck Miccolis, IBHS Managing Director of Commercial Lines, to hear more about common vulnerabilities of commercial buildings, as well as our research-backed mitigation methods for resiliency. In this episode we also help small business owners and commercial property owners better understand how they can better prepare for a range of hazards, including hurricanes, severe thunderstorms, wildfire, and severe winter weather. Plus, we highlight a few proactive mitigation strategies that business owners can use to help ensure business continuity.

In this episode host Rachael Penton Gauthier sits down with IBHS General Counsel Michael Newman and Public Policy Associate Manuela Ekowo, who together make up the IBHS public policy team. Learn how they're working to advance science-based public action to build resiliency for homeowners, businesses, and communities. Topics of discussion include building codes, wildfire policy, science-backed construction retrofits, disaster recovery, affordable housing, and meeting the need for investment so that resilient housing can become standard and accessible to all populations. Plus, hear the economic benefits of investing in resilient communities and highlights from some success stories.

In this episode of Disaster Discussions, host Rachael Penton Gauthier sits down with the IBHS wildfire research team to discuss insights from research projects past and present. The researchers examine some of the reasons behind the growing issue of conflagration in the Wildland Urban Interface. They also define the three the types of fire ignition mechanisms, and discuss the research that has informed mitigation methods homeowners can use to help protect their properties from embers and flames, including the importance of the non-combustible zone zero. They also highlight the wind-driven building-to-building fire spread project that is underway at the research center, and look ahead to how this project will inform wildfire mitigation strategies at the community level.