HOUSING RESILIENCE

CHALLENGES AND BEST PRACTICE

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Floodplain Buyout Program understands there are variables, such as the cost of masonry work, but elevating a roughly 2,000-square-foot house cost the county about $150,000 in reimbursement.

For a total buyout, the total expense would have been $500,000. Since the program was launched, Mecklenburg has purchased about 500 properties in the flood plain, removed them and mitigated more than $50 million in future hazard losses.

Additionally, the buyout program has created 185 acres of undeveloped public space, enhancing community resilience and reducing flood risk.

Mecklenburg is working to prevent people from suffering great damage from a disaster.

“Never let a good crisis go to waste is attributed to Winston Churchill,” Beller said.

“We never want a disaster to go to waste, so we are working to prevent people from suffering great damage when a disaster hits.

After Helene, the program made buyout offers on 27 damaged homes and 15 in the flooded area are interested in being elevated.”