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By Dorany Pineda and Rebecca Blackwell

The Associated Press

HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. 鈥� Before Hurricane Idalia smashed into a small fishing village in northwestern Florida, Charles Long, 68, was renovating a two-bedroom house for himself and his wife. After the August 2023 storm, he found remnants of the structure in a nearby canal and on a neighbor鈥檚 property.

To rebuild a new home elevated on stilts, as code requires, would cost $450,000, according to one estimate Long received. He can鈥檛 afford that. Instead, he鈥檚 building a pole barn in Horseshoe Beach for a recreational vehicle he is saving to buy.

鈥淚鈥檓 going to roll everything out of here鈥� if another hurricane comes this year, Long said with a nervous chuckle, his face glistening with sweat.

For people like Long, reconstruction after an extreme weather disaster can be a long and expensive process. The U.S. government has poured billions of dollars into projects to help build resilience. But as the impacts of climate change increasingly threaten coastal communities, experts say protecting them is getting harder and more complex.

The tens of thousands of dollars it can cost to perch a new home on stilts, plus the hundreds of thousands more to build the house, is cost-prohibitive for many people. So are the聽rising rates of insurance. Resilience-based plans also must address the compounding impacts of flooding, erosion, intensifying storms and rising sea levels.

And there鈥檚 no one-size-fits all approach 鈥� every community has different priorities and threat exposures. Whether using nature-based solutions or sea walls to ward off flooding, each will have indirect impacts on ecosystems, shoreline access and community character.

All things considered, designing holistically poses 鈥渁 wicked problem,鈥� said Paul Gallay, director of the Resilient Coastal Communities Project at Columbia Climate School.

鈥淵ou want to leave communities well protected, but you also want to preserve what makes them vibrant and worth living in,鈥� he said.

That isn鈥檛 easy. Redevelopment after a weather disaster can inadvertently trigger, accelerate or contribute to gentrification, much like what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Galveston, Texas, after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Property values and costs of living can rise, displacing residents and changing a community鈥檚 aesthetic.

In Horseshoe Beach, where recovery from Hurricane Idalia is ongoing 11 months after the storm hit, some residents worry that developers and wealthier newcomers who can afford to build to code will price them out if people decide to sell.

鈥淓veryone is worried about … Horseshoe changing,鈥� resident and councilmember Brooke Hiers said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want the hurricane to make everybody sell and turn it into a commercialized, busy place.鈥�

But she believes that is inevitable.

鈥淚 just don鈥檛 know when,鈥� she said.

Funds, shelter programs and other state and federal resources can help hurricane survivors rebuild, but they鈥檙e most often temporary solutions, can take time to access and don鈥檛聽fully address long-term housing challenges like affordability.

John Brogan, coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it has provided more than $83 million in grants to nearly 36,000 Idalia victims. He added that it鈥檚 important for communities that have so far avoided extreme weather events to learn about mitigation projects they can do now to prepare when a major storm hits.

鈥淭hese events are going to keep happening,鈥� Brogan said, 鈥渆specially for these coastal communities.鈥�

Rising sea levels and intensifying storms are eroding coastlines and devastating neighborhoods. Studies show that the water in the Gulf of Mexico is聽rising聽and warming faster than the global ocean 鈥� and warmer waters supercharge storms. Challenges await old and aging infrastructure.

Whether sacrificing a beach for a seawall or using nature-based solutions like wetlands that buffer against extreme weather, coastal communities are facing the increasingly difficult choice between staying or going.

They鈥檙e asking themselves 鈥渨hether or not we can protect the infrastructure in place, and if we do that 鈥� which is also a question, obviously the ocean is very powerful 鈥� for how long and at what cost,鈥� said Alyssa Mann, climate resilience project director for the Nature Conservancy鈥檚 California chapter.

For people who choose to stay along the sea, learning about the risks their coastal communities will face is critical.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a cost to living in paradise,鈥� Horseshoe Beach Mayor Jeff Williams said, echoing a popular sentiment. 鈥淭here鈥檚 always downsides to everything good.鈥�