More Floridians Consider Raising Homes After Hurricane Season

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida. – As thousands of people in the Tampa Bay area tear down their homes and start over after this fall’s flooding, many are thinking, “How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?” For some, the answer is to lift the entire house.

“Our plan is to raise it 12 feet high, which would have completely prevented any water in the main space,” said Meghan Martin, a resident of the Shore Acres neighborhood in St. Petersburg. “We would have been totally fine except for the garage and the storage space, which is what it was designed for. It was designed to get wet. So we could have avoided all of that if we had been able to be lifted or at least even start the car.” . survey process.”

Albert Jasuwan, president of JAS Builders, said he has several projects in Shores Acres at the moment.

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“Right now we have three live, we just booked 11 this week and we’ll probably get deposits for 30 or 40 more by the end of the month,” Jasuwan said.

He said raising your home offers advantages like being high and dry when big storms hit and you don’t have to worry about flooding.

“And there are benefits when it comes to insurance and adding value to your home,” Jasuwan said.

But it is a project that can be expensive and take a lot of time.

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“If they just want to lift it and put it on stilts, it could cost between $100 and 200 thousand. If they want to build it, it could be four, five, six or $700 thousand,” Jasuwan said. “The survey process itself, we tried to fit into a four-month process.”

There are FEMA grants and My Safe Florida funding that could bring around $10,000 in help to start, but residents say it’s not enough.

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