Homeowners along the Jersey Shore struggling to recover from Hurricane Sandy are considering how or even if they’ll rebuild.

If damage from Sandy was at least 50 percent of a home’s value, owners who had flood insurance could qualify for a federal grant of up to 30-thousand dollars to elevate their home.

Henry Kelly is president of The Kelly Group which has been building homes on the barrier islands for 30 years. He says that grant money might encourage owners to raise their homes to avoid flooding from future storms.

 “The people that I’ve talked to on the island seem to be willing to do that. If they think about it they would realize that going forward it will probably cost them a lot more money for homeowners insurance, if they can get insurance, if they don’t do something to try and alleviate the problem that we faced during this storm.”

Kelly says some residents along the shore inherited their homes and can’t afford to rebuild.

He says it’s difficult to estimate the cost of elevating a home.

 “I would say that the range would be from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars depending on the size, square footage of the home, the style of the home, and whether or not the home was on pilings or is on a regular masonry foundation.”

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