The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a document in March entitled, “Building Codes Strategy.” I finally received a copy in late April. I would encourage you to download the document and read what FEMA has to say.
One of the first things I noticed is the document says very little regarding plumbing, mechanical and fuel gas codes. That is not all that surprising since we normally associate FEMA with national disasters such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and wildfires. These events tend to line up more with building code and fire code requirements. Although, each one of the disasters mentioned does impact plumbing and mechanical systems. Furthermore, there are requirements in the plumbing and mechanical codes to mitigate losses for these disasters.