Our house is above the prevailing level, built on a cement slab foundation. We have no basement, and water would have to be >3' high above the land to get into the house, but that's only ~10' above sea level.
We have no electrical wiring below waist height, I think 3'? Our floors are tiles and our load-bearing walls are cement, so if we just had flooding we'd be able to get to ~13' above sea level before being in real trouble. Our furniture would be written off.
Our house is actually a bit more durable than the country. If we had a 15' storm surge, the house might survive, but the island would be toast. That would submerge nearly the entire island, and it would be happening during a hurricane. It would take months to recover even basic infrastructure. Our plan for that is to give up everything we own and return in a year or two to rebuild.
_But_, for a variety of reasons, a 15' storm surge is meteorologically improbable here. It's a once-in-a-millennium event, even accounting for the worst of global warming. Nothing is impossible, but there's no point in planning for it; it's like living within a thousand miles of yosemite national park. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We have no electrical wiring below waist height, I think 3'? Our floors are tiles and our load-bearing walls are cement, so if we just had flooding we'd be able to get to ~13' above sea level before being in real trouble. Our furniture would be written off.
Our house is actually a bit more durable than the country. If we had a 15' storm surge, the house might survive, but the island would be toast. That would submerge nearly the entire island, and it would be happening during a hurricane. It would take months to recover even basic infrastructure. Our plan for that is to give up everything we own and return in a year or two to rebuild.
_But_, for a variety of reasons, a 15' storm surge is meteorologically improbable here. It's a once-in-a-millennium event, even accounting for the worst of global warming. Nothing is impossible, but there's no point in planning for it; it's like living within a thousand miles of yosemite national park. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯