Judy Biondi looks forward to moving to Florida. The 70-year-old New Yorker plans to join her sister in Sarasota by the end of the year. Although Sarasota sits on the Gulf, Biondi isn’t worried about inclement weather.

“Whatever is going to happen is going to happen,” Biondi told Financial Advisor magazine. “It’s not like I’m 20 years old and have my whole life in front of me.”

While living under the sun and beaches of Florida are the dream for many baby boomers approaching retirement, the Sunshine State is not without its dark side.

“The relatively common occurrence of tropical storms puts more real estate and people at risk from storm surges aggravated by sea-level rise in Florida than any other state by far,” said Ben Strauss, scientist and vice president for sea level and climate impact with Climate Central in Princeton, New Jersey.

Like Biondi, retirees tend to downplay the seriousness of flooding as not life threatening, but death isn’t the only danger of hurricanes.

“A home that’s flooded from rising sea levels isn’t necessarily destroyed but damage from flooding can be very expensive and problematic,” Strauss said. “Flood risk can lower the property value of a home so much that you may not be able to sell it for the price you’d hoped in 10 to 30 years.”

That’s because the threat and awareness of flood risk is widening and the number of extreme events overall is rising.

There were 80 U.S. weather-related events that cost more than $1 billion each between 2004 and 2013, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. During the previous decade, there were only 46 such events. 

“Sea level rise is more than doubling the risk of a consequential coastal flood in South Florida by 2030,” Strauss said. “For residents holding a 30-year mortgage, that date is not far off in the future."

Costs are aggravated by increased building along coastlines. Nearly one million people live and more than half a million homes sit within four feet of the local high tide line in Florida, mostly in south Florida, which includes Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach counties, according to Climate Central.

 

“Beyond sea-level rise, other factors contributing to the rise in risk relate to the increased wealth invested both in buildings and their high value contents, which are susceptible to water damage,” said Dr. Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer with Risk Management Solution (RMS), a catastrophe risk management company.

Financial advisor Gary Marriage says his clients don’t ask about flood insurance, they just buy it.

“One hundred percent of my clients that live on or near a flood zone have flood insurance to protect their home and valuables,” said Marriage, whose office is in Crystal River, Fla.

But a standard home insurance policy that covers limited flood risks may not be enough.

“I advise my clients to get flood insurance and to make sure that the policy not only covers the house, but also belongings inside the house,” said Howard Hammer, a CPA who lives in a condo in Fort Lauderdale. “Get an appraisal of your valuables, such as art collections, jewelry and antiques, to determine how much coverage to buy.” 

The Florida dream doesn’t have to turn into a watered down nightmare when retirees are proactive and plan ahead. “There are things we can take action around, which include planning laws or the application of building code and also tracking whether extreme events are becoming more frequent or intense,” said Muir-Wood. 

Hammer suggests purchasing a condo on the beach because it’s easier to manage during a flood than a house.

“In a house, you are two feet from ground level and in a condo you are 10 to 12 feet up per floor,” Hammer said. “Retirees in south Florida should be looking for condos that were built after 2003 because these units complied with the strict Dade County building codes, which require impact glass on both windows and doors. It’s very expensive to install, so it’s better if impact glass is built in rather than retrofitted.”