Long Islanders in elevated homes like the security and the view

Bess Murphy was thrilled five years ago when her family moved back into their renovated Long Beach home after spending 10 months living in a rental in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy. A month later, she was speechless after receiving a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying they had to vacate again so their home could be elevated to protect it from future storms.

"We were just starting to put everything back together," says Murphy, 45, a grade-school math and science teacher. "It was hard to wrap our heads around it."

Now, with the work done, an addition tacked onto the home and a view of the Atlantic Ocean, she is pretty high. Nine feet higher, to be exact.

"I recognize there was a silver lining," she says. "That's not lost on me."

Sandy was truly an ill wind when it roared across Long Island in 2012, taking out nearly 100,000 homes and businesses and leaving behind 10 billion gallons of garbage and sewage. Some residents, seeing the destruction, decided to throw in the towel. Most returned to their homes to restart their life.

Recognizing the danger of future storms and rising sea levels, state officials created the federally funded NY Rising Homeowner Recovery Program in 2013 to repair houses and raise them out of harm's way. Elevation was mandatory for structures that were substantially damaged (where costs of restoring a house would be 50 percent or greater than its value) and within the 100-year flood plain. The state added an optional grant program for homes in the flood plain that had been badly damaged or repeatedly hit by storms. More than 3,000 Long Islanders have been undergoing compulsory or voluntary elevation projects, with more than half completed so far.

During the process, families leave while the structure is lifted. They can return after it is back on a new foundation, utilities reattached and given a final inspection.

All of the homeowners interviewed gave the program high marks but said the transition was a heavy lift both physically and emotionally.

"People say that we were lucky to get a brand-new kitchen out of the program, but I'd rather not have had my family go through all this stress to get it," says Caroline McGrath, 54, a preschool teacher who saw water from Sandy fill the basement of her Massapequa home and rise three feet onto the main level. Later, she realized the storm had taken more prized possessions than the furniture. Like the bag of Christmas ornaments her daughter had made by hand.

The family moved to Melville for nine months during initial repairs, then moved out a second time for the lifting process, which they anticipate will be a six-month absence. One of the main reasons she and her husband, Stuart, 59, who works in business systems sales operations, decided to join the program was the realization that insurance rates for homes not elevated would be skyrocketing.

"We didn't have to sign up," she says, "but how could you not?"

How to lift a home

Lifting a home is a complex process requiring a series of government inspections along the way, says Mike Rom, owner of Long Island House Lifting, an Amityville firm that has raised as many as 300 homes on Long Island and elsewhere. Here's an overview of the process, though "every house is different," Rom says. The process usually takes four to six months, he says.

• The homeowner removes their personal belongings, although not necessarily the furniture. The utilities are disconnected.
• Steel beams are run under the home.

• The home is jacked up and placed on cribbing, which is an interlaced wood structure.
• The old foundation is removed and "helical" piles screwed into the ground.

• The new foundation is poured to a height based on where the house is located in the flood plain -- usually 10 feet or higher.
• Metal hurricane strappings are bolted to the frame and the home lowered.

• Platforms and stairs are added. Utilities are reattached.
• Foundation vents are added to the basement, although some homeowners opt to keep the underneath part of the house open with just the pilings.

Sandy survivor Irina Wehner saw water fill her basement and cover the first floor of her home in the canal community of Copiague. She applied for the state-run grant program to raise homes out of danger, even though it wasn't mandatory in her case, she says she likes being aloft despite the extra eight stairs she has to climb.

"I don't mind," says Wehner, who works in finance. "It's a bit of exercise. And being elevated gives me peace of mind."

Mildred Risolo, 81, raised seven children in the family's Island Park home. Although she considered taking advantage of a buyout offer after Sandy sent 5 feet of water into her home, she ultimately decided to stay to be close to relatives, including her 19 grandchildren. She lived with a succession of daughters while the hoouse was restored, then moved out again for nine months in last August while it was lifted.

She likes the expanded view of the bay from her deck, though construction is not quite finished. One of her former concerns when the house was lower to the ground — a house break-in — has been alleviated, too.

"Now, we're so high, a burglar would need a ladder to get up here," says Risolo, whose home was lifted 8 feet.

Although she didn't lose a long-cherished home, Valerie Katsorhis, 38, an attorney, did have her Long Beach apartment wrecked by the storm. After resettling in Brooklyn, she met and married her partner, Tyler Griffin, which caused her to begin looking for an elevated home to buy. The one she found was a cube-shaped structure built on a vacant lot back in Long Beach, a home designed to accommodate a storm surge. Its raised first level functions as a garage and mudroom, and the home features storm-rated windows and flat surfaces to minimize wind damage. It also has two balconies and is topped with a deck with a view of the ocean, the city and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

"It's comforting knowing the whole thing is above the flood plain," says Katsorhis.

The roof deck view doesn't hurt, either.

"The ocean is so soothing and calming, which is kind of the point of living at the beach," she says. "It forgives the fact that we're not right next to the water because you can go up top and see it anytime."

As far as Bess Murphy is concerned, she is still getting used to the fact that she once had a ranch home.

"Now, the ranch is on the second floor," she says.

At first, she considered challenging the elevation order, knowing the lift would send cracks up the walls of their newly rebuilt home. Then, there was the matter of another location change while the work was being done, not an easy adaptation with two small children.

Eventually, she and her husband, Michael, 51, a construction supervisor, realized the safety and insurance benefits, despite the pain of living in a rental home for another 10 months. Now, they are home again. At last.

"We live here because we love the ocean," she says. "And we won't leave because we love the ocean."

They took advantage of the reconstruction to add an addition onto the side of their home, containing a dining room and an office as well as enclosing the stairs that lead to their elevated perch — features added at their expense. Murphy's mother warned her she wouldn't like the added steps up to her higher home. Actually, she discovered she loves being a comforting distance above the ground.

Now, she and her family shake their fist at future nor’easters.

"We've got this," she says. "Bring it."

Elevated homes for sale

This newly constructed home in Massapequa is listed for $899,000. There are four bedrooms, two bathrooms and one half-bathroom. The house is on an 80-by-107-foot lot. There are 3,850 square feet. Taxes are $19,157. Listing agents: Lynn Karp and Jane Clifford, Signature Premier Properties, 516-546-6300.

Located on a 50-by-100-foot lot, this Long Beach home is on the market for $724,999. It comes with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. This house was built in 2018. Property taxes have not yet been determined. Listing agent: Brighitie Verastegui, Beach West Realty, 786-298-3108.

This Bayville cottage is listed for $449,000. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom house is about 648 square feet and located on a 50-by-121-foot lot. It was built in 1946. Taxes are $8,549 a year. Listing agent: Patricia Farnell, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, 516-521-6962.

This expanded Cape in Freeport is on the market for $499,000. It has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The 1926 house on a canal comes with a new dock and new bulkhead. It is located on a 60-by-100-foot lot. Annual property taxes are $17,452. Listing agents: Jason Price and Davorka Bender, Sailing Home Realty, 516-377-4760.

Located on a 60-by-100-foot lot, this Mastic Beach home is on the market for $289,000. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms in the 2017 house, which overlooks the Great South Bay. Parking is under the home. Taxes have not yet been determined. Listing agent: Amy Schuler, Your Team D & G Realty, 516-250-5565.

— VALERIE KELLOGG