When the ground goes, the building goes
Hurricane Ian in September 2022 stripped the dunes along Volusia’s coast; Hurricane Nicole, making landfall as a Category 1 south of Vero Beach that November, then drove surge into the weakened shoreline. The result was structural, not cosmetic: pool decks and patios collapsed into the ocean, and Volusia County ultimately deemed roughly 49 beachfront buildings unsafe or at risk of collapse, including two dozen hotels and condos, with occupants evacuated door to door. On the oceanfront here, erosion and the coastal construction setback are as central to insurability as the roof.
