William Fulford moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to a new waterfront development in Florida in 2023. The new home near Bradenton Beach, nestled between Sarasota Bay and southwestern Tampa Bay, was everything Fulford, a retired custom homebuilder, had ever wanted.
The developers of the new Hunters Point community, Pearl Homes, billed the property as the first “net-zero” single-family home development in the U.S., meaning residents produce more energy from solar panels than they need, with the excess energy either being stored or sold back to the grid – in a state where most electricity is generated by burning natural gas, a fossil fuel that is warming the planet.
They also have some of the most durable, energy-efficient, and hurricane-resistant homes in the country: the streets surrounding the homes are intentionally designed to flood so that homes don't flood. Power and internet lines are buried to prevent wind damage. The sturdy concrete walls, hurricane-resistant windows and doors are reinforced with a foam insulation layer, providing extra security against the most violent storms.
Climate resistance and storm protection were built into the structure of the homes. And while the newly developed homes have weathered a few storms since people moved in around February 2023, Hurricanes Helene and Milton put these features to the test over the past two weeks.
Most Hunters Point residents adhered to mandatory evacuations ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall, but 76-year-old Fulford stayed behind with his wife, Sueann, just as they did last month during Hurricane Helene.
They stocked up on water and groceries. Fulford moved the car to higher ground. He tied all the patio and back deck furniture together. They brought everything from the garage, which took up the entire ground floor, to the living areas on the second floor. And in the worst case scenario, Sueann insisted on buying life preservers.
“I'm just pretty convinced that the power and everything is in this house. They built a big house, a strong house,” Fulford said. “And I just feel comfortable. I feel like we are high enough even if we get a storm surge.”
Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday evening in Siesta Key, about a 30-minute drive south of Hunters Point. The storm destroyed large parts of Florida, including surrounding areas of Hunters Point such as Anna Maria Island and Bradenton. The storm dumped more than 18 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, which equates to a rainfall rate of more than 1 in 1,000 years for the area.
Milton has turned off power to more than 2.5 million customers across the state, including in Manatee County, where Hunters Point homes are located.
But for Fulford and his neighbors, the lights stayed on.
“Everyone around us was completely dark around 5 o'clock in the morning, and you can see the lights on in our homes,” Marshall Gobuty, the founder and president of the Pearl Homes development, told CNN. “So it was really a test of why we were doing this.”
Residents who lived through both hurricanes told CNN they suffered little to no damage. Neither the heavy floods from Helene nor the strong winds from Milton destroyed their homes. Solar power and battery storage kept the lights on all night and into the following days.
“I hope people take a good look at all of this and start paying attention to what's happening here,” Fulford said. “Everything is changing,” referring to the stronger storms he now sees every year.
Storm-proof success
When Gobuty started the design process for Hunters Point, it was imperative that the homes be able to withstand Category 5 hurricanes. It is the first residential development in the world to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) net-zero certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.
Each of the three-storey houses is designed as follows: the ground floor is a garage designed with flood openings to drain rising water. The living areas start on the second floor, which was deliberately built 5 meters above sea level. From the roof to the foundation, steel straps secure the entire structure. Solar panels are attached to the raised vertical seams of the roofs to prevent them from flying away.
The property is also located in a major flood zone, which meant the homes had to be raised to meet Florida building codes. Still, the developers went beyond the required 3 feet of fill dirt and used 7 feet to be safe.
“The idea is that if water were to get into the garage, which is fine because we have the flood beds specifically for that, there would still be 10 feet of garage left,” Gobuty said. “That should be an impossibility (before the floods). We knew this would never happen.”
But these features come at a cost. According to the community's website, the homes are selling for $1.4 million to $1.9 million, compared to other new homes in the area that cost at least $600,000.
As a custom builder who built hurricane-resistant homes himself in Virginia, Fulford said he is impressed with the way his new Florida home was built. So far, the project is still under construction, with 31 homes of the 86 homes to be developed.
Fortunately, Hurricane Milton's landfall location, south of Tampa Bay, has spared the area from the worst-case scenario forecasts of a storm surge of up to 15 feet. Instead, Milton rode the worst of the storm surge across a 65-mile stretch of coastline between Siesta Key and Fort Myers Beach.
But in a future ravaged by climate change, Hunters Point residents say they must prepare for what's to come, underscoring the need for more homes to be built and designed this way.
“Solar, batteries and the way we build homes will be part of the future because we see it performing well.” Gobuty said. “The world is changing, and this is the test people are waiting for.”
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