Storm-Resistant Housing Gains Foothold in U.S. Hurricane Zones

When Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle five years ago, it left boats, cars, and trucks piled up to the windows of Bonny Paulson’s home in the tiny coastal community of Mexico Beach, Florida, even though the house rests on pillars 14 feet above the ground. But Paulson’s home, with a rounded shape that looks something like a ship, shrugged off Category 5 winds that might otherwise have collapsed it.

“I wasn’t nervous at all,” Paulson told The Associated Press, recalling the warning to evacuate. Her house lost only a few shingles, with photos taken after the storm showing it standing whole amid the wreckage of almost all the surrounding homes.

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A person’s home is one of the biggest ways they can reduce their individual carbon footprint, AP writes, with buildings releasing about 38% of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions each year. Some of the carbon pollution comes from powering things like lights and air conditioners and some of it from making the construction materials, like concrete and steel.

Deltec, the company that built Paulson’s home, says only one of the nearly 1,400 it’s completed 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.

“The real magic here is that we’re doing both,” said CEO Steve Linton. “I think a lot of times resilience is sort of the afterthought when you talk about sustainable construction, where it’s just kind of this is a feature on a list.” But “we believe that resilience is really a fundamental part of sustainability.” |Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/storm-resistant-housing-gains-foothold-in-u-s-hurricane-zones/ | theenergymix.com/storm-resista…

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