Climate change is increasing billion-dollar disasters, many of them from intensifying hurricanes
November 05, 2023 at 3:38 pm PSTDevastation from Hurricane Michael is visible including the area around Bonny Paulson's home, center top, in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Some developers are building homes like Paulson's with an eye toward making them more resilient to the extreme weather that's increasing with climate change, and friendlier to the environment at the same time.
Deltec, the company that built Paulson's home, says that only one of the nearly 1,400 homes it's built over the last three decades has suffered structural damage from hurricane-force winds. But the company puts as much emphasis on building green, with higher-quality insulation that reduces the need for air conditioning, heat pumps for more efficient heating and cooling, energy-efficient appliances, and of course solar.
To reduce vulnerability to flooding, home sites are raised 16 feet above code. Roads are raised, too, and designed to direct accumulating rainfall away and onto ground where it may be absorbed. Steel roofs with seams allow solar panels to be attached so closely it's difficult for high winds to get under them, and the homes have batteries that kick in when power is knocked out.
Babcock Ranch is another sustainable, hurricane-resilient community in South Florida. It calls itself the first solar-powered town in the U.S., generating 150 megawatts of electricity with 680,000 panels on 870 acres . The community was also one of the first in the country to have large batteries on site to store extra solar power to use at night or when the power is out.
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