You need to get the house off the ground to allow the storm surge to pass underneath. 15 feet (5 meters) is about what you should plan for. You would need conc

You need to get the house off the ground to allow the storm surge to pass underneath. 15 feet (5 meters) is about what you should plan for. You would need concrete piers going down 40+ feet (13 meters) to provide enough shear strength to protect against the wind load and also the sand erosion that will happen. Something to consider is that all that weight up high (if you elevate a brick house somehow) will cause the house to function as an inverted pendulum. The wind in a hurricane isn't constant - it has both infrasound and pressure waves[1] in the audible range and if it happens to match the resonant frequency of your building, that's bad. Maintenance is constant in coastal areas. They usually use fiber-cement siding ("Hardie Plank") as it doesn't rot and provides some resistance to wind-driven projectiles (aka your neighbor didn't bring his patio furniture indoors, and now the chairs are missiles). Air conditioners last half their usual expected lifespan because they're constantly running and the salt-laden air corrodes them. [1] Apparently hurricanes can induce "earth hum" via friction contact. https://arxiv.org/html/physics/0509103 https://arxiv.org/html/physics/0509103