Flooding is a serious problem for any building, but for a historic building, it can be catastrophic. Fortunately for us there are experts out there like this week’s PreserveCast guest Rod Scott who are able to help property owners take preventative measures.

Rod Scott of L & R Resources, LLC based in Louisia not only shares with us how one can raise a building above the floodplain, but also some of the changing economics of flooding and flood insurance, as well as why he believes that we are living in historic era of flooding.

MORE ABOUT ROD

Roderick ScottRoderick Scott has been involved in historic preservation for over 15 years serving as preservation commission chair at the county and community level and serving as a Governor appointed Trustee of the Iowa State Historic Society and as board member and chair of Preservation Iowa.

In 2008 the massive flooding in Iowa led Rod into the disaster recovery field where he pioneered the use of federal and state income tax credits for the rebuilding of multiple historic properties for tens of millions of dollars of work.

Rod was a flood and historic restoration contractor for 25 years and transitioned into structure elevation for flood hazard mitigation in 2009 in Louisiana. Rod helped start a $5 million elevation company to help service the needs of over 1,500 property owners elevate their homes in Louisiana.

In 2010, he project managed the National Czech and Slovak Museum relocation in Cedar Rapids and the elevation of the three historic Santa Fe Railroad Historic District buildings along the Mississippi River in 2010.

In 2011 Rod pioneered a public education outreach program on how elevation works in upstate New York after Hurricane Irene and redeployed the program in New Jersey/New York area after Sandy.

The program was presented at 29 venues to around 4,000 people and the You Tube posts are at around 13,000 views. This program, sponsored by the elevation industry, was awarded the 2014 Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) Floodproofing award.

Rod was awarded  his Certified Flood Plain Manager certificate in 2014 and is currently providing CEU flood hazard mitigation education to architects, engineers and code officials as well as completing a “How to Elevate Your Home” video series for Louisiana State University (LSU).