FEMA May Force Floridians To Elevate Their Homes Due To Helene And Milton

Photo for illustrative purposes only. Photo by Samuel Cruz on Unsplash

Countless homes on Florida’s west coast took on considerable damage after Hurricane Helene and Milton, but how many of them that are still standing will have to be leveled and reconstructed or otherwise built up anyways? While Floridians may be familiar with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its substantial damage rule, many may have not considered how it affects them.

Still, weeks after both hurricanes hit, inspectors, insurance adjusters, engineers, and other important workers involved in the recovery process are trying to meet the needs of the affected homeowners. In a press conference on October 24, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri himself stated that not everyone in the county has even gotten their power restored yet.

So, the damages have yet to be fully assessed. However, according to FEMA, if the damage proves to be “substantial” such that the repairs a structure needs to be restored to its pre-hurricane condition exceed 50% of the structure’s value, then the structure needs to be “brought into compliance with current local floodplain management standards”. 

This can mean that the structure, or house, needs to be elevated, especially if it is in a high-risk flood zone and the ground floor is a living space. Some county governments, including that of Pinellas County, are advising citizens on how to proceed while damage assessment is ongoing.

After Hurricane Milton, the official website for Pinellas County posted an article explaining FEMA’s substantial damage rule and linking resources like the county’s current building codes. In Pinellas County, a portion of Article XI details that if a structure was legally created prior to new code changes, then it is essentially grandfathered in and does not have to conform to the new codes unless severely damaged or destroyed.

In this case, for Pinellas County, “if the cost of repairing or replacing the damaged portion of the structure exceeds 49% of the appraised value prior to the damage (per the Pinellas County Property Appraiser), the structure must be restored in full compliance with the” most current codes.

Even for residential structures specifically, if a dwelling is “damaged or destroyed by an act of god”, then “the new structure must conform to the development standards…and all other current building and fire codes”. In a Pinellas County floodplain, one the most current codes of concern is that new structures must be built at least one foot above the base flood elevation (BFE). 

The BFE is “the elevation of a flood having a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year, which is commonly referred to as the ‘100-year flood’ or the ‘one-percent-annual chance flood’”. BFEs vary depending on zoning. 

In order to find out the BFE at a particular home or business, visit FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer Viewer and enter the address. It will show the exact zone at the given address, plus the elevation. For example, a house in Zone AE/(EL 10) has a BFE of 10 feet and a house in Zone VE/(EL 13) has a BFE of 13 feet.

Based on this, if a structure was damaged or destroyed such that it would fall under FEMA’s substantial damage rule and is not currently less than one foot above the BFE, then it may need to be rebuilt or raised so that either the entire structure or just the living space is one foot above the BFE. 

According to a FEMA guide, the whole structure can be lifted and a taller base can be put below it, the existing lower floor can remain and the roof and walls can be extended upward to allow for the lower living space to be elevated, or the existing lower living space can be abandoned, moved to an existing or new upper floor, and used only for a garage, storage, and access to the rest of the house. 

It is worth noting that not all of these methods work for all structure types. The latter two methods are appropriate for masonry houses built “on slab-on-grade foundations” but not for frame construction homes. The elevation techniques may also be dependent on the structure’s level of damage and other factors.

In the meantime, the Pinellas County government’s article affirms that the county “is responsible for assessing damages before repairs on all buildings in flood hazard areas within the unincorporated county as part of the floodplain management rules adopted per FEMA guidelines”. The county predicts that this process “will likely take months to complete due to the widespread impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton”.
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Article by Ema Tibbetts