SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Leaders in Sarasota County shared what buildings are most at risk of storm surge and floods. For the first time, every county and city in Florida is identifying its most vulnerable structures under a new state mandate.
Braving a thunderstorm, Stephen Venditti wanted to see for himself what engineers think will happen to his home in the future when you combine sea-level rise, tidal flooding, and heavy rain.
“I want to see how close everything is to my home,” he said, pointing to a spot on Siesta Key. “I live back in here someplace. I didn't see any type of streets, but it's all blue there, not good.”
The Resilient Florida Program is funding grants for counties and cities to continue studying where the water will go by 2040 and 2070, what buildings must be retrofitted or saved, and later, what to pay for first and how.
“We're living in a lap of luxury down here,” he said. “Let's make it work. We can make things better.”
In addition to seeing maps of the areas of unincorporated Sarasota most vulnerable, the county took feedback to fine-tune its list of buildings in danger.
“Getting our list of projects that we really feel are going to make a big impact and that we have the design and that we have the reason for, and really going after and implementing those projects,” said Ashley Lein, an engineer with Taylor Engineering, which was contracted to complete the vulnerability assessment.
But it's not just the beach; some inland areas of Sarasota top the priority regions, which surprised her.
“Sarasota County, [I] would think that most of their issues are going to be on the barrier islands and on the coast,” she said. “But there's a lot of impacted areas along the rivers and further inland in the county.”
Meaning everyone here must now figure out how to prepare for the future, and how to afford it.
You can find more information about the Sarasota County vulnerability assessment here: Sarasota County Sustainability