On September 28th, my vacation rental, which was set to bring in over 100k this year was flooded with 7.5 feet of water. It's currently gutted and we are just waiting, waiting, waiting on insurance. There's this FEMA 50% rule and we are not sure what to do. I live around the block and my actual home was also damaged, and my two tiny homes also flooded, so we've been dealing with a lot. Basically my whole business was destroyed in 24 hours...

The county has my property (w/o) land valued at $202,207.  It's 1435 sq feet.

I have $100,000 per the 50% rule to fix the whole property up without having to raise it to the current base flood elevation of 11 feet.  My contractor said it would be around $130/sq foot, but that he could mark the permits at 100k and tack the remainder of the balance onto my personal property.  Is this a bad idea?

I am also considering getting an appraisal to re-evaluate the building pre-storm, which I will most likely do.

My question is:

Has anyone been through this before?

Part of me is wondering if it's worth tearing down and rebuilding a new property just in case this happens again so I don't have to deal with possible flooding, and because it will make the property hopefully more valuable.  I applied for an SBA loan, which could potentially help with the additional cost to build.  I have not heard back on how much insurance will be giving me yet, but my total limit is $210,000, and they offer an extra $30k if you have to raise to the current base flood elevation.

What are the things I should consider when making this decision?

What steps should I take next?  I should be hearing back from insurance in the next month.

Anyone with experience in this please HELP!