Louisiana reached a milestone that should result in fewer homes being damaged from storms around the state.
In November, the Louisiana Department of Insurance announced the state had hit 10,000 FORTIFIED roofs, a standard developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety to strengthen roofs against hurricane-force winds.
“FORTIFIED roofs are specifically designed to prevent damage that commonly occurs during high winds, hurricanes, hailstorms and severe thunderstorms,” the department wrote in a press release. “They are built with stronger edges, sealed roof decks, [and] impact-resistant shingles and are better attached with ring-shank nails.”
The state launched the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program in October 2023 to encourage homeowners to bring their roofs up to the higher standard. The state also created a grant program that awards up to $10,000 in construction costs to homeowners who update their roofs.
Roughly 4,000 of the FORTIFIED roofs were grant recipients. “We’re two years and 4,000 roofs in,” Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Tim Temple told Homes.com in a phone interview. “I think that’s strong.”
Only existing homes eligible for the grant
New construction homes are not eligible for the grant. Homes must also have a homestead exemption (i.e., they must be primary residences) and be covered by an active wind policy. If the house is located in a designated flood zone, it must also carry flood insurance.
Homes also need to be evaluated by a FORTIFIED evaluator as being in good repair, and homes on a dry-stack foundation — usually with feet of unrestrained stacked masonry — must have an approved retrofit.
The funds can be used only for roof construction. Homeowners cannot pay for the construction until they are approved for the grant.
The state runs a lottery multiple times a year, accepting 1,000 applications at random for the grant. The third lottery of 2025 will close Nov. 19 at 5 p.m.
Temple said the state limits it to 1,000 at a time to manage capacity. “There are only so many inspectors out there,” he said. He added that more roofing companies have been undergoing training to be certified to deliver FORTIFIED roofs.
Homes don’t need to receive the grant to be certified. The other 6,000 roofs are from people and developers who either built homes with the certification or paid for the upgrade themselves.
“I think it demonstrates that people want the peace of mind that your shingles will stay on and your contents will stay dry,” Temple said. He added that every insurance carrier in the state offers a discount for having a FORTIFIED roof.
Temple’s office did not have statistics yet on the efficacy of the program. However, Alabama has more than 50,000 FORTIFIED roofs. A report by the University of Alabama from May of this year on the impact of Hurricane Sally in 2020 found that the upgraded roofs reduced loss frequency by 55% to 74% and loss severity by 14% to 40%.