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Comment by jbob2000 | Hacker News Reader

jbob2000

Shoreline erosion is already concern for any waterfront property, and there are already devastating hurricanes and weather events they have to prepare for. From what I've seen, the owners of these properties are up to speed on the challenges the properties face. If there's damage, they repair it, it's just the cost of living next to the water.

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In Florida, the entire first floor cannot be covered by flood insurance. Most homes do not have basements as you cannot dig down to create one. Most 1st floors of nicer homes are essentially a finished basement and posts to support the rest of the building and the main floor starts on the 2nd level.

During a hurricane, you assume everything on the first floor to be a loss so usually people may have their pools, have granite/tile flooring and do not have carpet etc so that way after a flood/hurricane it's easy to clean/fix up.

This comment sounds somewhat strange to me. If you don't mind me asking, where are/were you living in Florida where this is the case? I have lived in South Florida for 25 years, residing in areas around Martin County, Port St Lucie, West Palm Beach, and Tallahassee. Most of my vacations were spent at friends houses in Tampa, Sarasota, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and even Marathon Key.

Most houses I have lived in, and the houses my peers owned, were all one story houses. Those who lived in what insurances labels as "known flood zone" areas still had carpet, and the houses are decorated no differently than the houses I have seen in California when I lived there, as well as Michigan where I currently live.

We also were able to enroll in flood insurance without any issues. Granted, it's extra insurance on top of typical home owners insurance, but Allstate had no issues providing us with flood insurance for over two decades of living there.

Is this perhaps how the more wealthy people live, or is this maybe how a specific area lives? I have legitimately never heard of people purposely furnishing their first floor as if it were a basement. I have seen the trend of moving away from carpet, but that is a more general trend that I am observing here in MI, as well, so I am not entirely sure it is can be directly linked to home owners worrying about potential flooding.

It was in a more affluent area of Ft. Myers where most homes were north of $750k on canals that go to the gulf. I apologize for not responding earlier, usually after 3-4 posts I end up being throttled where it says, "You are posting too much please slow down" and then I have to wait until the next day.

The point about insurance is not accurate. In some low-lying areas, these statements are accurate, but even in coastal areas it is far more common to have a finished 1st floor with the standard insurance rules. It all depends on the flood/evacuation zones.

That sounds like a smart way to engineer homes in flood prone areas.

Alternatively, don’t live in Florida.

Also this only applied in an area along the Gulf Coast, if you live further inland you may be able to get insurance that covers the first floor, but I have no idea.

I do agree though, I like to visit Florida here and there but I would never want to live there permanently.

This has become standard fare up and down the East Coast.

I think shoreline erosion is a good example of what will happen.

An apartment building just south of SF was recently condemned and torn down because the cliff it sits on is slowly falling into the ocean.[1]

[1]https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pacifica-apartm...

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