ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The demand for elevating low-lying homes in the Tampa Bay area has surged following the back-to-back hurricanes in 2024, according to Albert Jasuwan, the owner of JAS Builders.

“Pre-Helene and Milton, we were maybe lucky to get calls or inquiries on one or two a year to get a job that way,” he said. “Now we’re booking about six a month.”

Hurricane Helene sent a 6.3 foot storm surge into St. Petersburg on Sept. 26, 2024, which flooded 10,700 homes, and Hurricane Milton damaged an additional 4,904 homes by wind or rainwater flooding about two weeks later on Oct. 9, according to city records. The Special Flood Hazard Area covers 45% of St. Petersburg.

Jasuwan said a majority of the elevation work by JAS Builders has been in Pinellas County, but his crews have traveled as far south as Fort Myers to lift a house.

“We’re getting inquiries from Miami now and even as far as Pensacola,” he said. ”We have about 40 completed so far, and we still have a good log going into next year.”

The most effective way to mitigate a home against flooding is to elevate it, according to St. Petersburg Floodplain Manager Hannah Rebholz.

“Best approved way is elevation,” she said. “Getting that first living floor above where that water might come, that’s the best, most efficient way to stay out of harm’s way.”

Rebholz said city records show 122 homes in St. Petersburg are being elevated privately by homeowners and an estimated 148 homes have been enrolled in the Elevate Florida program, where the state and FEMA fund the elevations and rebuilds. If all those owners complete the elevation process, it would bring the total to 270 mitigated homes.

“There’s two different types of mitigation,” said Rebholz. “You can elevate your house and pop all of it out of the ground and crank it up, or you can vacate the first floor and put your new living floor where your roof was.”

City records show out that of the 122 homes being elevated privately, only three have officially received their certificate of occupancy to move in, 89 houses are actively getting raised, and 30 are going through the permitting process to be elevated.

Quinn Lyons has lived in the Riviera Bay neighborhood in St. Pete for a decade and began the elevation process in February with JAS Builders. A couple of months later, his ranch-style home was sitting about 14 feet up in the air on temporary pine cribbing. Lyons said he decided to elevate after Helene’s storm surge sent 3 feet of seawater into his home, toppling his 24-inch flood gates.

“We just didn’t know how severe it was going to be,” he said. “It definitely caught me off guard when it went over my flood gates and got into the house.”

Lyons said because Helene hit before the final inspection could be completed on a newly built addition to his house, the open permit was counted as part of the flood claim and quickly put him over the city’s 49% rule for FEMA. Lyons faced three choices: sell the home for land value only, demolish to build a new home, or fix the house and elevate it out of the floodplain.

“We had just got it how we wanted it,” he said. “Trying to find a four (bedroom), three (bathroom) in St. Pete for anything decent amount of money, without having to redo anything, with a pool, was way more expensive than lifting.”

Lyons said it’s costing him about $425,000 to elevate, but the price includes an enclosure for a golf simulator, garage and stucco. In a couple of months, his family should be back in a newly renovated home which will provide protection from storm surge in the future.

“We’ll be able to ride it out from now,” he said. “No more stress.”

Jasuwan said the cost to elevate starts at $120 per square foot and can go up to $250 for homeowners who decide to do a full build below.

“We’re giving these people an option for half the price of new to stay in the homes that they already love,” he said. “We’re making it stronger, bigger, better for future storms.”


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