Resilient Building

Our natural environment is a crucial part of Sanibel and Captiva’s current and future resilience.

Web Resources

Buildings – homes, businesses, community gathering places, and more – are vital to the quality of life on Sanibel and Captiva. They can also promote, or threaten, our resilience

Resilient buildings must adapt to the threats we face (from surge, flooding, wind, and heat) but should also avoid contributing to these risks by minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. SanCap Resilience established the Resilient Building Working Group to better understand the Community’s questions concerning resilient buildings, identify and share resources that help answer those questions, and spotlight gaps in the resources that leave questions unanswered.

Learn more about our initial list of Web-based resources, organized by resilient building topic area. Are you aware of valuable resources we’ve missed? Please send them our way at [email protected]!

Introductory Information

A. Understanding Your Flood Zone 

B. Overall Building Resilience

Retrofitting And Repairing Existing Structures

A. Flood Resilience

If you have a home or business below flood level, the best way to reduce your flood risk is to elevate it. But elevating may not be immediately possible for everyone. We’ve included two additional options to consider for buildings that remain in the flood zone – Dry and Wet floodproofing. These options have their limitations, and may not reduce insurance rates, but they could reduce restoration costs following another storm.

  1. Elevating Homes

  2. Dry Floodproofing

    Dry floodproofing involves creating a barrier to prevent water from entering a building. It can be mandatory for commercial buildings in certain flood zones, but many techniques can also be used with residential structures. As a floodproofing strategy, it has two significant limitations. First, it typically requires set-up just prior to the flood event. Second, a deep enough flood, or strong enough current, can overwhelm the flood barrier. However, it can be among the lowest-cost options and can provide protection in many circumstances.

  3. Wet Floodproofing

B. Wind and Rain Resilience

In a region that is prone to hurricanes and high wind storms, hardening your home or business against wind and rain is essential. Taking steps to do so can also reduce your insurance premiums.

  • This Wind Retrofit Guide for Residential Buildings from FEMA, updated in April 2023, provides an in-depth description of how to assess risks and outlines “mitigation packages” that can be implemented.
  • This other FEMA guide, Successfully Retrofitting Buildings for Wind Resistance, from June 2019 after Hurricane Michael in Florida provides a good overview of both ineffective and effective retrofitting strategies.
  • The My Safe Florida Home program provides home owners with a free storm mitigation inspection. Income qualified home owners can receive can receive financial support to implement findings from the inspection. This program is subject to funding from the State Legislature.
  • The Fortified Roof Program provides a good resource for determining how to most effectively strengthen your roof against wind and rain damage.

Additional Tips

A. Green Building and Sustainability

Green and sustainable building focusses on reducing the environmental impact of buildings. For resilience, the most important impact is greenhouse gas emissions. Almost half of these emissions on Sanibel and Captiva come from the way we use energy in our buildings. Reducing energy waste, and using renewable sources of energy, can save money as well as help reduce the climate-related threats we face. But other aspects of green and sustainable building are also important for protecting our islands as well as our health.

  1. General Guidelines and Certifications

  2. Energy Efficiency

  3. Renewable Energy (Solar)

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