A hurricane-proof town in Florida managed to effortlessly ride out Hurricane Milton while most of the state experienced immense destruction.
Babcock Ranch, a community that opened in 2018, experienced some downed traffic lights and trees, but never lost power during Milton.
The disastrous hurricane whipped across the Sunshine State last week, leaving more than three million residents without power, and an estimated 24 people dead, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Despite this, the Manhattan sized town built to resist more than 150 mile-per-hour hurricane grade winds, stood tall and was nowhere near impacted like other communities.
The town still made sure to prepare for the storm by turning a local school and sports facility into shelters for evacuees, as residents from nearby Fort Myers made their way to Babcock Ranch for cover.
Syd Kitson, a former NFL player for the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, co-founded the town and applauded Governor Ron DeSantis for informing Floridians that Babcock Ranch was open for people to evacuate to.
‘When Governor Ron DeSantis made the announcement that Babcock Ranch was open we saw a very big surge in evacuees.
‘It saved a lot of lives in some really dangerous areas,’ Kitson told The New York Times.
Around 400 people filed into a K-12 school, while another 1,600 took shelter in the town’s sports complex.
In addition to being able to withstand strong wind, the town also has 150-megawatt solar farms and an underground transmission system that keeps the community’s electricity strong with little to no power loss.
About 90 percent of the land in the Babcock Ranch is built on preserved wetland, which helps collect excess water, leading it to rarely flood.
‘Mother Nature is going to rule every time. But what we try to do is mitigate as much of that risk as possible and make our community as resilient as we can,’ Kitson told the outlet.
In an effort to help those affected by the storm, the community came together and donated essentials.
People gathered to drop off donations, while also enjoying food trucks, bouncy castles and face painting on Saturday.
‘A big thank you to everyone who came out tonight and generously donated items for those affected by Hurricane Milton,’ the town’s Instagram page said in a post.
‘Your kindness and support mean the world to our neighbors in need.’
The latest hurricane to rock the state was not the first that Babcock Ranch has survived, as Hurricane Ian rushed through in 2022.
Though neighboring communities experienced approximately $115 billion in insured and uninsured home losses, the town, again, saw mild damage, Kitson revealed.
He and many residents even hunkered down in their homes during the storm.
Kitson, the chairman and CEO of the real estate development company Kitson & Partners, purchased Babcock Ranch in 2006.
He was named the 2023 TIME ‘Dreamer of the Year’ for his ‘dedication to environmental responsibility and his investment in people and community for a better tomorrow,’ according to Babcock Ranch’s website.
Homes in the community range from $300,000 to more than $4 million, and up to 10 percent of the properties could be set aside for affordable housing in the future, a town representative told The New York Times.
With a month left in hurricane season, and after two back-to-back storms, Kitson emphasized that other Florida communities need to consider sustainability and climate change options to save their people and towns.
‘What we need is more communities to build with sustainability and climate resilience in mind,’ Kitson said.
‘Only then will we see insurance providers change their algorithms to reflect the assurance that a town like Babcock Ranch provides.’
A housing development in Cortez, known as Hunters Point, managed to keep the lights on for 31 homes supplied with solar-battery systems that lasted days after Milton made landfall.
Marshall Gobuty, founder and president of Hunters Point, which is about half the size of Babcock Ranch, told the outlet there was ‘satisfaction’ in using sustainability techniques to make it through major storms.
‘All around us there’s so much damage and debris and flooding. There’s no happiness, but there’s satisfaction that we did the right thing,’ Gobuty said.
Though he originally planned to build an RV park on the property, Gobuty soon partnered with the University of Central Florida and the U.S. Green Building Council to build energy driven homes.
He plans to build 55 more homes, which cost between $1.25 and $1.6 million, by February 2025.
‘We’re pioneers at this stage. But this should be the norm for home building,’ he said.
Just before Milton hit Siesta Key Wednesday, it was downgraded to a Category 3 storm.
While Milton did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared in Florida, the clean-up operation could take many weeks or months for some people.
Insured losses for Hurricane Milton are likely to range between $30 billion and $60 billion, according to Morningstar DBRS analyst Marcos Alvarez.