Builders, Texas, windstorm engineers out of sync

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Having a rigorous process is a great idea. Have engineers certified shoddy work in the past?

Bill Underbrink, a homebuilder and small-businessman, sometimes wonders on whose side the bureaucrats sit.

Underbrink built three, quarter-million dollar brick homes in Ingleside that put him in a financial hole caused by a disconnect between state-certified windstorm engineers who design and inspect homes on the Texas coast and the Texas Department of Insurance that manages the process.

Hundreds of state-licensed engineers, many frustrated with the Texas Department of Insurance, are dropping out of the windstorm certification program that allows structures to be insured by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.

Last year, more than 900 engineers participated in the program. As of Feb. 15, there were 201, according to a list available on the Texas Department of Insurance website.