Making Florida More Flood Resistant Is Forcing Hard Choices for Homeowners

Summary

In Gulfport, Fla., an artsy waterfront city of about 12,000, downed trees and piles of debris line streets that were once neatly flanked by modest pastel homes. Construction crews are a common sight.Residents are still recovering from Hurricanes Helene, which battered Florida’s Gulf Coast a year ago, and Milton, which hit less than two weeks later. Many have been ordered to completely rebuild damaged homes instead of repair them, upending their lives and changing the small-town feel of a place that was unique in the condo-packed state.In communities participating in the federal flood insurance program, any home that has been “substantially damaged” must be rebuilt to the latest flood-resistant standards or demolished.The rule is meant to make cities and towns along the water more resilient. But in Gulfport and other storm-torn coastal communities, it has forced thousands of hard decisions throughout the past year. The cost of compliance was simply too high for some residents, so they sold, often at a loss.“The locals are disappearing,” said Nancy Poucher, 70, an artist who bought a mustard-colored bungalow in Gulfport with her husband for their retirement. The house flooded badly during Helene, and the cost of rebuilding to code was too high.These decisions are accelerating what one Florida lawmaker has called “the great reset” of the state’s waterfront after several ferocious hurricane seasons. The colorful cottages that had dotted many towns along the Gulf Coast are giving way to hulking, storm-hardened homes.“People moved here because they liked the old Florida character,” said April Thanos, the vice mayor of Gulfport. “Whether you call them McMansions or not, the homes that are going to be built are going to be elevated, and larger. It will change things.”That is what happened in the Lower Keys after Hurricane Irma in 2017, and in Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian in 2022. Only the wealthy may be able to afford to rebuild in compliance, but it is increasingly...