By George LeMieux, Florida Council of 100
Annual flooding in Florida is our new reality. With three-quarters of Floridians living in coastal counties, hurricanes and flooding have affected nearly every corner of our state.
When storms hit, the damage isn’t just to fallen trees or flooded streets. Businesses close. Workers lose paychecks. Families are displaced. Insurance premiums spike. Housing costs rise. Communities lose residents and sometimes never fully recover.
And it doesn’t take a named storm for these disruptions to hit. I saw this firsthand in Fort Lauderdale on April 12, 2023, when historic flash flooding – more than 2 feet of rain in 12 hours – left me wading home from work in knee-deep water, and three of my colleagues stranded in their cars overnight. This wasn’t just a weather event; it was an economic shock that rippled across the regional economy to the tune of $1.1 billion.
For Florida, our resilience is largely defined by how we bounce back after disastrous storms and floods. While this is often framed as an environmental issue, it’s also an economic issue.
Every dollar invested in hurricane preparedness can preserve more than $7 in economic activity, and flood protection investments can preserve more than $25. These returns show up in faster recovery, steadier jobs, stronger property values, and homes that remain insurable and more affordable.
And resilience is especially crucial for small businesses. Nearly 40% never reopen after a major disaster, often due not only to storm damage but to the delays and uncertainty that follow. When recovery drags on, communities lose the local businesses that anchor their economy, character and identity.
With all of this in mind, the Florida Council of 100 released its new resilience report to offer practical and pragmatic solutions that help Floridians recover faster, rebuild smarter, and protect what makes this state such a desirable place to live and work. We recommend policy changes that would reward investments in resilience, such as zoning overlays so buildings can be readily altered when pursuing flood mitigation improvements. We also recommend establishing certification programs for homes meeting special building standards, leading to insurance savings.
Our report also highlights opportunity. Florida is already home to innovators developing flood protection, storm-resilient materials and reliable energy systems — investments that create high-wage jobs and position the state as a global leader. These startups need capital to grow, though, so our recommendations include making them eligible for state economic development programs fostering research and development.
Moreover, across the state, Council of 100 members are not approaching resilience as an abstract policy debate. They are actively investing in stronger infrastructure, advancing innovative solutions, and working with local communities to reduce risk and speed recovery. These efforts reflect a shared commitment to ensuring Florida remains a place where families, businesses and communities can thrive, even in the face of growing challenges.
The storms are coming either way. Florida should meet them with policies and actions that help people live confidently and recover quickly. Resilience is the foundation of Florida’s future.
George LeMieux is chair of the Florida Council of 100. This opinion piece was originally published by the Palm Beach Post, which is a media partner of The Invading Sea. Banner photo: Flooding in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood after historic rainfall in April 2023 (iStock image).
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The Florida Council of 100 presents a very compelling economic argument for planning and building resiliency into Florida infrastructure and society. It is not only cost effective to mitigate potential damages before they inevitably occur, but life saving and suffering reducing. I am grateful FC100 has taken time and effort to do the research and advocate for action.
I only wish they would take the same initiative to use their powerful membership and platform to advocate for solutions that would address the root causes of flooding in the first place, ie carbon emissions and pollution. Preventing flooding (and other heat related symptoms) are much more cost effective than mitigating the effects.
Setting goals for the State to eliminate carbon emissions is essential for reducing the suffering and COSTS of atmospheric warming impacts. It would be a great service to the citizens of Florida, and future generations of Floridians, for the Florida Council of 100 to do their due diligence and provide guidance to policymakers regarding elimination goals for carbon emissions produced within the boundaries and budgets of the State.
The solutions undoubtedly include boosting use of Solar Power to provide electricity, leveraging the Sunshine we are so fortunate to experience in The Sunshine State. (Plus it creates a whole new industry of jobs and leads to Florida being a net exporter of energy instead of a net importer of Methane).
Thank you for this great comment. Clean energy is the future and can be the force that prevents such disasters from occurring in Florida and around the world.
The resilience preparation message is good to hear from business leaders and certainly resilience preparation will be important for the future of Florida. However, the report only includes one mention of “sea level rise” and zero mentions of climate change. The lack of references to what is the cause of many of these problems that we need to address is troubling. Along with Adaptation efforts described in the report, we badly need to address MITIGATION of Greenhouse gases to prevent accelerating the impacts from sea level rise, salt-water intrusion, etc. and thus the report leaves a huge gap. It’s like bailing an overflowing bathtub while leaving the faucet running.