Helen and Milton put this net-zero, hurricane-resistant community to the test. The lights stayed on while everything else went dark

CNN
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William Fulford moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to a new waterfront development in South Florida in 2023. Located between Sarasota Bay and the southwestern portion of Tampa Bay, the new home next to Bradenton Beach was everything Fulford, a home builder Retired, would like to achieve at all. .

The developers of the new Hunters Point community, Pearl Homes, billed the property as The first “net zero” single-family home. In the United States, the development means residents are producing more energy from solar panels than they need, with excess energy stored or sold back to the grid — in a state where most electricity is generated by burning natural gas, a fossil fuel that leads to global warming.

It also boasts some of the most sustainable, energy-efficient, and hurricane-resistant homes in the country: the streets surrounding the homes are deliberately designed to flood so that the homes do not become submerged. Power and internet lines are buried to avoid wind damage. The sturdy concrete walls and hurricane-resistant windows and doors are fortified with a layer of foam insulation, providing additional security against more violent storms.

Climate resilience and storm protection are built into the fabric of homes. While the newly developed homes have weathered some storms since people moved in around February 2023, Hurricanes Helen and Milton put those features to the real test over the past two weeks.

Most residents living in Hunters Point responded to mandatory evacuations before Hurricane Milton made landfall, but Fulford, 76, stayed with his wife, Swan, just as they did during Hurricane Helen last month.

They stocked up on water and groceries. Fulford moved the car to higher ground. He tied all the patio furniture and back deck together. They brought everything from the garage, which takes up the entire ground floor, to the living spaces on the second floor. In the event of a worst-case scenario, Swan insisted on having life-saving equipment.

“I’m absolutely sold on the strength and everything in this house. They built a great house, a strong house,” Fulford said. “And I just feel comfortable. I feel like we’re at a high enough level, even if we get a bad storm.

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about a 30-minute drive south of Hunters Point. The hurricane obliterated large parts of Florida, including areas around Hunters Point such as Anna Maria Island and Bradenton. The storm dumped more than 18 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, representing more than 1 in 1,000 years of precipitation in the region.

Milton cut power to more than 2.5 million customers across the state, including Manatee County, where Hunters Point homes are located.

But for Fulford and his neighbors, the lights stayed on.

“Everyone around us was completely dark at about 5 a.m., and you see the lights on in our homes,” Marshall Gobuti, founder and president of the Pearl Homes Project, told CNN. “So, this was a real test of why we were doing this.”

Residents who stayed during the hurricanes told CNN they suffered little to no damage. Neither the severe floods from Helen nor the strong winds from Milton destroyed their homes. Solar power and battery storage kept the lights on throughout the night and the following days.

“I hope they take a hard look at all of this and start paying attention to what’s going on here,” Fulford said. “Everything is changing,” he said, referring to the powerful storms he now experiences every year.

When Gobuty began the design process for Hunters Point, it was imperative that the homes be able to withstand Category 5 hurricanes.

Each of the three-storey houses is designed as follows: The ground floor is a garage designed with ventilation holes to drain rising water. Living spaces begin on the second floor, which is built 16 feet above sea level. From roof to foundation, steel straps secure the entire structure. Solar panels are attached to the raised vertical layers of roofs to prevent them from blowing away.

The property is also located in a major flood zone, which means the homes need to be raised to comply with Florida building codes. However, the developers went beyond the required 3 feet of dirt fill and used 7 feet instead to be safe.

“The idea is that if water gets into the garage, which is fine, because we have flood basins designated for that, there’s still 9 feet of garage,” Gobuti said. “It should be impossible (for floods to enter). “We knew that would never happen.”

But these features come at a cost. according to Community websiteHomes are selling for $1.4 million to $1.9 million, compared to other new homes in the area that are priced at least $600,000.

As a custom builder who has built hurricane-resistant homes himself in Virginia, Fulford said he was impressed with the way his new home in Florida was built. As of now, the project is still under construction, with 31 completed homes out of the 86 to be developed.

Fortunately, Hurricane Milton’s landing site, south of Tampa Bay, spared the region from a worst-case scenario forecast of up to 15 feet of storm surge. Instead, Milton drove the worst of the storm’s storm surge across a 65-mile stretch of coast between Siesta Key and Fort Myers Beach.

But in a future ravaged by climate change, Hunters Point residents say they need to prepare for what’s to come, stressing that more homes should be built and designed this way.

“Solar energy, batteries and the way we build homes are going to be part of the future, because we see them doing so well.” Gobuti said. “The world is changing, and this is the test people have been waiting to see.”