Travel to Valigorsky’s beachfront home in a gated community in Volusia County, Florida that was in his family for nearly 15 years before it was washed away this week as dangerous storm surge and high winds from Hurricane Nicole swept across Florida.   

  “This house was my grandmother’s favorite place,” Valigorsky told CNN.  “Some of the best memories with her were here.”   

  Valigorksy is just one of many residents in the beachside neighborhood of Wilbur-By-The-Sea whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm.   

  In Volusia County, at least 49 beachfront properties, including hotels and condos, have been declared “unsafe” after Nicole, which hit Florida’s east coast south of Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane early Thursday before weakening to a tropical storm and becoming finally a post-tropical cyclone on friday afternoon.   

  Video from the county shows homes collapsing, collapsing, as Nicole’s waves erode the shoreline.  Separate video shows the county’s beach safety office collapsing into the rising water.   

  Sea levels in this part of Florida have risen more than a foot in the past 100 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and most of that rise has occurred in the past three decades.   

  Scientists and researchers have long warned that rising sea levels lead to more erosion and high-tide flooding — particularly during extreme coastal storms.   

  That has put even more pressure on seawalls meant to protect coastal communities from high waves and water levels, many of which were destroyed this week by the storm surge.  A seawall erected Tuesday, which Waligorski and his neighbors hoped would protect their property from damage, had collapsed into the ocean by Wednesday, he said.   

  “It was stressful wondering if it was going to fall, and here we are,” Valigorsky said.   

  On Wednesday morning, Valigorsky decided to grab his essential belongings and his dog to evacuate the area as he watched the storm intensify.  By the time he returned, all that was left of his home was the garage and front foyer.   

  As his community begins to rebuild their neighborhood after Nicole, Waligorski said he plans to rebuild his home along with his neighbors who also lost theirs.   

  Another resident, Phil Martin, lost his entire home during the hurricane this week.   

  “It was the most devastating thing to see,” Martin said.  “We didn’t think it would be this bad.”   

  Martin said he has lived in the area for two years and the house was his permanent residence, where he spent time with his children and grandchildren, playing soccer in the backyard or walking to the beach.   

  “There’s no politics at the beach, everybody gets along,” Martin said, adding that his community and those around Wilbur-By-The-Sea keep his spirits up.   

  “Everything happened very quickly with it,” he said.  “But we will rebuild, we have this.”   

   Just six weeks ago, Hurricane Ian’s storm surge eroded parts of Florida’s east coast, hitting the area where a seawall was built behind Martin’s home and his neighbors.  Now, he said, that sea wall is gone.   

  The continuous nature of the storms makes the walls — which are already aging — more vulnerable, Brian McNoldy, a senior researcher at the University of Miami’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, told CNN.   

  “You don’t really need a strong storm – you just need high tides or turbulent tides to wash out or put extra pressure on the walls,” he said.  “Having these two storms six weeks apart, if you don’t allow time for repair or replenishment, each storm definitely leaves its mark.”   

  Arlisa Payne, who has been a resident of the beach community for most of her life, told CNN affiliate Spectrum News 13 that she has “never seen anything like this” after assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Nicole.   

  Although her home survived the storm, Payne said she is concerned that the seawall in front of her home is at risk of collapsing.   

  The mother of four said many of her neighborhood’s homes were not damaged by Hurricane Ian, but were hit hard by Nicole, making it difficult for the community to prepare for such storms.   

  “I think that caught a lot of people off guard,” he said.  “How do you prepare for this?  People can’t prepare for it.”