Flood vents grow in use along Conn. coastline

After a welcome spate of rain to quench Connecticut brush fires, some are thinking ahead to the next time the immediate peril is a wall of water -- by renovating their foundations to let flood waters in, to save the house itself.

Since the destruction of the 2012 storm Sandy, coastal property owners from Greenwich to Stonington have been installing flood vents in foundations, with a number of applications for approval currently before municipal zoning officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires flood vents for newly built or raised houses most at risk of flooding to qualify for coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program, with Connecticut adjusting its building code after Sandy to incorporate flood vents, and municipalities following suit.

Equipped with louvers that automatically allow floodwater to flow into and out of basements, crawl spaces and garages, flood vents are designed to equalize the hydrostatic pressure of standing water -- or the hydrodynamic onslaught of rushing water -- on the exteriors of foundations.

By allowing water into a basement and garage, FEMA says the odds are heightened a home will stay structurally intact during a flood, limiting costs to the cleanup and remediation rather than the prospect of a full reconstruction at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Connecticut policy claims have averaged about $18,700 over the life of the flood insurance program, which is up for reauthorization next month by Congress.

FEMA acknowledges flood vents are unlikely to help a home avert catastrophe in any event involving "high-velocity flood flow and wave action" such as the torrents that coursed through Oxford, Seymour and Southbury during August flash floods. And with flood vents installed a foot above base flood elevations, in many cases houses must have their foundations elevated to meet program requirements.

"Every time we have done a retrofit in adding them, it was involved in a house lift too," said Ryan Fletcher, CEO of Norwalk-based Fletcher Development, which has undertaken a number of projects along Long Island Sound, including new construction.

In addition to raising the foundation, retrofitting a home for flood vents can be an expensive proposition in other ways, including the cost of elevating furnaces and other electrical systems that are located in the basement to utility spaces above flood stage, and upgrading flooring and walls to water-resistant materials.

Letting floodwaters into a house also can let in contaminants, lengthening the period of time that a family has to live somewhere else while remediation is completed, adding to the total cost of a flood.

Still, FEMA offers discounts on flood insurance for properties equipped with flood vents -- in some instances at big-enough discounts for the savings to pay for the cost of installation. And some states include flood vents as eligible for grants to gird houses against the risk of floods, including New York under its Resilient Retrofits program.

Seymour-based Connecticut Basement Systems has installed a number of flood vents over the past decade-plus in Connecticut, but infrequently according to CEO Larry Janesky. The company uses vents from New Jersey-based Smart Vent.

"I've been in the business 40 years and I've never seen a foundation that failed because there was floodwater on the outside and not on the inside. Everything we do is to keep basements dry, so it's totally counterintuitive to us," Janesky said. "But if someone says, 'Hey, I can save money on my insurance and over time I can save more than the flood vents cost,' OK, then fine."

Includes prior reporting by Ken Dixon.