This particular home has all metal roof, and as you can see with the rivets and such, it’s very, very stable.

Their reinforced roof is typical of the development’s heavy-duty architectural approach.

Let me show you about the way it’s built.

the walls here are, Concrete, but they’re a concrete block, so it’s about this deep, but it’s also, there’s rebar down the middle as well as there’s, we had insulation sprayed down into the openings in the blocks.

So what this means is that these houses are very resistant to weather.

The entire house has been designed to withstand the elements.

Reinforcing bars bolster the garage door, and the windows and doors are protected by a material usually found in bulletproof vests.

So these are storm shutters, but they’re made of Kevlar.

So, they’re very resistant to puncture, and so if there’s anything flying through the air with the hurricane, this is most likely to stop it.

Thanks to this wealth of protection, the couple were left unscathed by Hurricane Ian in September 2022, one of the most violent storms in Florida’s history.

Classed as a Category 4 hurricane, it made landfall with record intensity.

150 people died and more than 2 million lost power.

The region was devastated, except for Babcock Ranch.

And this, of course, is the eye, and this crosshairs over here is where we’re located.

Behind their Kevlar shutters, Robin and Richard had a front row seat to the action.

And it was pretty scary.

That was like the strongest part of the storm, about 125 mile an hour winds, the storm shutters.

The water’s hardly moving.

In Babcock Ranch, every structure is designed to endure winds exceeding 260 kilometers an hour, a commitment that’s unmatched by any other building code in the country.

The city is also the first American community entirely powered by solar energy.

An immense expanse of 700,000 solar panels already supplies enough energy to power 30,000 homes.

Because visionary developer Sid has big plans for his project.

He’s even built a school with 940 places up to high school level to attract more families.

We’re approaching about 10,000 people.

We, within two years, by 2026, will have 20,000.

And then when we finish Babcock Ranch, it’ll have about 55,000 people that will be living here.

You’ll probably have another 10,000 that work here.

So what’s the price tag on this idyllic life shielded from disaster? Kevin, an IT consultant, and Alina, who works in HR, have come from Phoenix, Arizona to visit the show homes.

These are both the same home.

These are both Charlottes.

This house costs $600,000, double the price of the cheapest model.

It’s got the decorative glass on it, but on the inside, it’s still hurricane impact.

So go ahead.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, wow.

Oh, nice.

The prices may be geared towards well-off buyers.

I love that.

But they’re competitive for this part of Florida.

For Kevin and Alina, who lived in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, the investment is worth it.

I’m going to move into a community that’s thinking about these things, that’s thinking about, you know, a safer way to.

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push electricity to these houses and not have overhead lines that have the potential of falling when a hurricane force gale comes along and cracks a pole.

This new kind of community is emblematic of the United States two-speed system in which only the most fortunate can access reliable infrastructure.

The rest will have to wait for the government to finally rebuild their country from the ground up.

 

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