According to the Congressional Budget Office, over 9% of properties in the United States are at risk of flooding. When disaster strikes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is in charge of the response. And FEMA has a rule for how communities rebuild. It’s called the 50 Percent Rule and it’s designed to stop the cycle of flood damage by requiring houses to be elevated in certain circumstances. But whether FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule hurts or helps your town often comes down to money.

Ninety percent of the historic town of Mandeville, Louisiana, is in the FEMA flood zone. I got a tour from Rod Scott. All the houses we passed were lifted up on pilings 12 feet in the air.

“This is the new one that’s going up now. Look at that,” he said. Scott’s a contractor who specializes in elevating buildings. He’s raised 1,500 all over the country. “ Better breeze, better view. You don’t have to flood.” 

Scott told me Mandeville has flooded 17 times in the last 18 years during storms and hurricanes. And when houses are significantly damaged, homeowners have to elevate because of FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule. The rule says if your house is damaged and repair costs are over half of your house’s market value, you can’t simply repair your house to how it was before. 

Now, almost all the buildings in historic Mandeville are perched high up on pilings. Houses, restaurants, stores — all up with the birds. “Mandeville is the most flood-adapted, retrofitted community on the planet right now,” Scott said.

But elevation is expensive. Just a small house costs $150,000 to raise. And most of the houses in Mandeville are not small; some homeowners here have shelled out $1 million to raise their house. 

Homeowners insurance doesn’t cover it, so almost everyone in Mandeville has paid out of pocket. “So, in this community, there was enough wealth to write a check and do that,” said Scott.

But 80 miles south of Mandeville, it’s a different story. Rev. Tyronne Edwards is the council member in Pointe à la Hache, a majority Black town right on the banks of the Mississippi River. “Because the law that FEMA created with forced elevation,” said Edwards, “people can’t afford it.”

“Forced elevation” — that’s how a lot of people refer to the 50 Percent Rule. And, Pointe à la Hache is at severe risk of flooding. “I’m afraid because I know if a hurricane comes today, this community can’t rebuild,” Edwards said.

In this community, most residents don’t have over $100,000 to elevate if their homes are severely damaged. There are FEMA grants available to help cover elevation costs, but demand is high, and these grants are hard to get.

Chadwick Encalade is one of two residents in Pointe à la Hache who received a FEMA elevation grant after his house was damaged in Hurricane Katrina.

“I’m like one of the few in the area that got the grant,” he said. Now, his home sits 23 feet in the air. “I see over the levee. I can see the ships. I see everything — it’s a beautiful view.”

Chadwick Encalade knows that when the next storm hits, his elevated house will probably make it through. But his mom, Vergie Encalade, lives next door, and her house is barely off the ground. “What’s going to happen if something happens to my home?” Vergie wondered. “I don’t have the funds to elevate, you know, some — I don’t have the funds to elevate anything.”

It’s easy to imagine Chadwick’s house as one of the few that survive the next storm. He’s worried, though, about his mom — and his neighbors. This is a tight-knit community. And, he said, people don’t want to leave.

“It’s part of you. It’s part of your being. So, it’s like losing a part of yourself if you leave, you know,” said Chadwick.

The goal of FEMA’s 50 Percent Rule is to create safer communities. But what that often looks like on the ground is that residents have pay to go up or find a new place to live.