It's been a requirement that all new housing on Florida's (and presumably Alabama & Mississippi's) Gulf Coast barrier islands be built on pilings (stilts) for a number of years. Ground floors can be only be used for such things as garages, utility and laundry rooms, not living quarters. They can be enclosed, but the walls have to be engineered to break away in storms so that floodwaters can flow underneath the buildings. It's a system that works pretty well in category one or two hurricanes, but when you start talking storms with winds in excess of 125 mph and with storm surges that push water into the second floors of piling-built structures, all bets are off.