Enclosed areas, including crawl spaces, that are below the design flood elevation shall:
- Be used solely for parking of vehicles, building access or storage.
- Be provided with flood openings that meet the following criteria and are installed in accordance with Section R322.2.2.1:
- The total net area of non-engineered openings shall be not less than 1 square inch (645 mm2) for each square foot (0.093 m2) of enclosed area where the enclosed area is measured on the exterior of the enclosure walls, or the openings shall be designed as engineered openings and the construction documents shall include a statement by a registered design professional that the design of the openings will provide for equalization of hydrostatic flood forces on exterior walls by allowing for the automatic entry and exit of floodwaters as specified in Section 2.7.2.2 of ASCE 24.
- Openings shall be not less than 3 inches (76 mm) in any direction in the plane of the wall.
- The presence of louvers, blades, screens and faceplates or other covers and devices shall allow the automatic flow of floodwater into and out of the enclosed areas and shall be accounted for in the determination of the net open area.
The walls of enclosed areas shall have openings installed such that:
- There shall be not less than two openings on different sides of each enclosed area; if a building has more than one enclosed area below the design flood elevation, each area shall have openings.
- The bottom of each opening shall be not more than 1 foot (305 mm) above the higher of the final interior grade or floor and the finished exterior grade immediately under each opening.
- Openings shall be permitted to be installed in doors and windows; doors and windows without installed openings do not meet the requirements of this section.