Florida [US], August 25: "The road was a raging river. It was like the ocean," recalled Maria Blancett. "There were white caps going down the street. There were fish in the road."
Maria and her husband, Dave Blancett, had weathered major hurricanes while living in Virginia and Texas. But they had relocated to Florida for their retirement, and nothing had prepared them for the force of Hurricane Ian.
When Ian struck in September 2022, it became the deadliest hurricane to hit the Sunshine State since 1935. High winds, storm surges and flash flooding killed more than 150 people and left a trail of destruction across southwestern Florida.
"You sit there thinking, I know we bought a really good house, but will it blow away?" said Maria. Luckily, it didn't - but their roof was damaged, resulting in $130,000 in repairs.
They weren't alone. Ian caused nearly $120 billion (€103.8 billion) in damage, making it the third-costliest hurricane in US history, behind only Katrina and Harvey. For the Blancetts, it wasn't just a storm. It was a wake-up call.
"Everybody kept saying that Ian was a once-in-a-lifetime event," Dave said. "But I realized that if another Ian hit close to the neighborhood we were in - and it will, it's a matter of when - the property values would just drop."
Like many Floridians, the Blancetts were forced to reevaluate their future in a state increasingly battered by climate-driven storms. Their solution: move at least 30 miles (48 kilometres) inland and 30 feet (9 metres) higher.
A town designed for resilience
Just north of Fort Myers, the Blancetts found what they were looking for in Babcock Ranch.
Billing itself as "Florida's first storm-proof town", the 18,000-acre (7,284-hectare) community was designed with resilience at its core. Native plants are everywhere, helping absorb rainwater that flows off curbless roads and back into the environment. Former rock mines have been converted into lakes, part of a stormwater system that pumps excess water into nearby wetlands before storms hit.
Homes are built with impact-resistant windows and special doors that help secure roofs. The local school's sports arena doubles as a Category 5 hurricane shelter.
When Ian hit, "it sat on top of us for eight hours," said Babcock Ranch founder Syd Kitson, describing how the eye of the storm passed directly over the town. In the post-storm early morning light, he got into his car and drove through the community.
"It was really interesting because people were out in groups, neighborhoods, just sort of wandering around looking and stunned that there was almost no damage whatsoever," said Kitson.
Communities surrounding Babcock were devastated. But aside from a few downed branches, the ranch stood firm - drawing national attention and a surge of interest from potential new residents, including from the Blancetts.
"I just think people have said, 'I'm done. It's just not worth it.' Even a foot of water in your house just creates such hardship," said Kitson of people like the Blancetts, who decided to leave their once-coveted coastal homes behind.
About 7,000 people now live on the ranch, which opened in 2018. Residents have a choice of rentals and housing, ranging from around $300,000 to $1 million to buy.
Staying put and rebuilding smarter
But not everyone has the means or desire to move, especially those with deep roots in a community.
"My mom bought this property in 1964. And I'm fortunate enough to still be here," said 71-year-old Linda Williams, sitting in her mint green, bungalow-style house in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood.
Williams is no stranger to hurricanes. When Irma hit in 2017, she and her family took shelter in a local church. Afterward, they returned home to help neighbors and clean up debris. However, inspectors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found a structurally compromising crack in her ceiling and deemed the home unsafe.
Without insurance and unable to afford repairs, Williams feared she'd have to sell. She didn't know where they would go, since home and rental prices in the neighborhood were on the rise.
A friend tipped her off to a home replacement programme run by the City of Miami. The programme demolishes homes with major structural defects and builds three-bedroom, two-bath homes in their place. They built Linda's home 5 feet (about 1.5 metres) above its previous elevation to protect it from flooding.
The city covered the reconstruction, but Williams had to pay $50,000 in rent during the five-year rebuild, a cost she hadn't anticipated.
Still, Williams was happy with her new home and was also elated she could afford home insurance again because of the hurricane-resiliency features.
"Talk about blessings. Honey, I'm a believer and I say, hallelujah. Y'all don't know the happy dance I do."
Nonprofits step in to help lower income communities
But many of Williams' neighbors remain without insurance because it's too expensive for homes that haven't been hurricane-proofed.
"Most of our clients are older people, all of them low-income. A lot of them live in very old homes. And so, the vast majority of them are uninsured," Martina Spolini, executive director of Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade, told DW. "Then a hurricane comes, and that has devastating effects on the finances of the family."
The nonprofit helps residents strengthen their homes before disaster strikes - installing impact-resistant windows, doors and roofs. Since its founding after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the group has rehabbed more than 1,400 homes at an average cost of $35,000 per unit. The renovations not only help people regain insurance coverage but also make homes safer before the next storm.
"The need is huge. We're just scratching the surface," said Spolini. "We can do 60 to 80 homes per year with the current funding, and we have a 250-person wait list with people calling constantly."
Despite the urgent need, Spolini explained, convincing decision-makers to fund such projects is a constant struggle.
"We see a lot of resistance when we meet with potential funders in supporting programs like ours because these are expensive," she said. "This is a yearly occurrence, and hurricanes are becoming stronger and more devastating every single year."
While Florida alone has suffered an estimated $346 billion in hurricane-related damages in the last five years, federal support for mitigation measures is declining. FEMA grants that once helped communities like Miami-Dade guard against future disasters are being cut under the new administration of President Donald Trump. The president has also announced plans to shut down the agency entirely - putting responsibility on individual states.
However, Spolini argues that the return on investment for preventive and resiliency work is clear.
"It's estimated that for every single dollar that we invest in mitigation repairs, we save six post-disaster," Spolini explained. "These are high-cost repairs, but in the long term, it saves a lot more money."
Source: Times of Oman
