Hurricane-Hit Atlantic, Gulf Coast Communities Rebuilding Bigger, Not Smarter, Study Says

Home Shredded After Missouri Storms

Coastal communities recovering from hurricanes have a tendency to rebuild bigger rather than smarter, placing residents and infrastructure at even greater risk for future storms, a new study says.

A team of researchers studied five communities devastated by a collective six hurricane systems between 2003 and 2012 on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The scientists found that "despite decades of regulatory efforts in the United States to decrease vulnerability in developed coastal zones, exposure of residential assets to hurricane damage is increasing, even in places where hurricanes have struck before," according to the study published last week in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Lead author Eli Lazarus, a coastal scientist from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, said in a statement that this trend of “building back bigger in zones known to be prone to damage from extreme wind conditions and storm surge flooding ... creates an intensification of coastal risk — through increased, high-value property being exposed to major damage or destruction.”

In Hattaras, the average overall footprint of homes built post-hurricane increased by 19 percent. In New Jersey, the footprint jumped by 49 percent. On Santa Rosa Island, the footprint increased by 55 percent.

Lazarus told Popular Science that programs like the National Flood Insurance Program and FEMA emergency disaster relief are forcing taxpayers to inadvertently “support development in risky places.”

"The crippling effects of disasters on vulnerable communities can leave them open to — and perhaps ultimately pushed out by — speculative real-estate markets with investors who buy up ruined parcels of land to make gains in any subsequent recovery," said Lazarus. "The building of larger homes, in-turn, puts a greater strain on the funding of subsidized insurance for properties in at risk areas."

The researchers also note that many middle class coastal homeowners unable to afford to rebuild in the wake of a hurricane are being pushed out of prime coastal locations. Instead, developers of luxury homes are swooping in and building structures that will cost taxpayers even more if and when disaster strikes again.