• Renovated building in high-risk hurricane zone
• FEMA required floodproofing to 12 feet
• Flood Panel flood barriers selected
• Complete solution included consulting, design and project management

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office North District Station recently moved to a new location in Dunedin, Florida. Just a few blocks from the Gulf of Mexico, the renovated building features flood mitigation solutions by Flood Panel LLC.

Pinellas County is in a high-risk hurricane zone on the Gulf Coast of Florida that includes the cities of Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Since 1930, 79 hurricanes have been recorded there. Hurricane Andrea was the most recent to make landfall in 2013.

FEMA flood maps put the new office location in a Zone AE 11. Zone AEs have a 1% probability of flooding every year (the “100-year floodplain”) and flood water elevations above mean sea level have been established. Properties in Zone AE are considered to be at a high risk of flooding under the National Flood Insurance Program. Buildings in that part of Dunedin are required to have a Base Flood Elevation of 11 feet with 1 foot of free board, a total of 12 feet of floodproofing. The first floor of the new office was at just 7.61 feet.

Kokolakis Contracting (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) and architect R.E.P.A. (St. Petersburg, Fla.) evaluated three floodproofing systems for the project. National Flood Protection, a Flood Panel National Corporate Partner, Certified Distributor and Certified Installer Nationwide, provided a competitively-priced proposal that met the project’s tight schedule. NFP installed four flood panels to protect exposed openings on the first floor of the building.

According to Jeff DeRocker, Project Manager for Kokolakis Contracting, NFP installers were very efficient, completing the project in just one day. “The field crew was very professional, protected adjacent work, and thoroughly cleaned the work areas after the installation was complete.”

The official opening of the North District Station was at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, just days before the official start of the 2018 hurricane season.

Credit: Kokolakis Contracting and R.E.P.A.