In many coastal communities along the East Coast, houses large and small stand 15 feet in the air on concrete or wooden pilings. The view: gorgeous beaches and deadly flood zones. 

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy destroyed over 600,000 homes and killed more than 200 people, costing approximately $70 billion in damages. Last year, climate disasters in the US set a new record with 22 extreme weather events costing over $1 billion each. 

Since Hurricane Sandy, construction companies along the East Coast have been busy fortifying oceanfront buildings against storms that experts say are only getting stronger as a result of climate change. 

“That’s all we do. We’re always on the water,” Kevin Braza, owner of K.E. Braza Construction in Connecticut, told Insider. “We haven’t taken any jobs off the beach, to be honest with you. Everything is seawall construction and raising houses.”

Wolfe House & Building Movers said house-lifting costs can range anywhere from $10,000 to over $100,000 for larger buildings — and that’s excluding foundation and utility work. 

According to Braza, almost all of his clients own properties worth at least one million dollars, with one sea wall project coming with a price tag of approximately $2 million. 

“Believe it or not, the million-dollar-plus homes are people’s summer homes, which is crazy,” he said. “In the summertime, they don’t want us on the beach, and now in the fall when this hurricane season comes around, people are really freaking out.”

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