Amid collapsed homes and flooded communities, a single project in Florida survived Hurricane Helene unscathed.
Hunters Point, a housing project in Cortez, Florida, avoided flooding and kept electricity going while nearby streets filled waist-deep with water and homes lost power.
The community’s first residents arrived in 2022 and have since experienced three devastating hurricanes – Ian, Idalia and Helene – without serious damage.
This is no coincidence. Hunters Point developer Marshall Gobuty planned for these sturdy homes to experience minimal problems during hurricanes. He said “sustainability and resilience” were the focus of the project.
Hunters Point salesperson Shaun Williams told DailyMail.com: ‘Marshall saw the need for a community like this for a home that is almost self-sufficient.
Avenue B – just a few blocks from unscathed Hunters Point – was devastated by Hurricane Helene storm surges
Hunters Point’s storm-resistant homes survived Hurricane Helene thanks to their unique protective properties
An aerial view of the storm-proof Hunters Point neighborhood in Cortez, Florida
‘On any given day you generate considerably more energy than you consume. He felt there was a need for it, especially in Florida.
‘Why sacrifice location for a high-quality product that is storm-resistant?’
Before building the disaster-resistant homes, Gobuty’s team spent 18 months testing and tweaking the design. The entire development process took five years to ensure that the houses would be energy efficient while surviving natural disasters.
Gobuty told DailyMail.com: ‘Climate change is real, climate change is here, and we need to build homes that can deal with it.’
The result: ultra-solid houses made of steel, concrete, lumber and rigid foam.
These houses have been raised and the roads in the area have been raised to prevent flood damage.
Gobuty told DailyMail.com: ‘On the first floor of the house you are actually 5 meters above the flood zone. So it just gives people that confidence and it obviously gives insurance companies confidence that this house isn’t going to flood.”
Steel straps connect the floors and the roof is completely made of steel. The first floor of every home is a sturdy concrete layer.
Hunters Point can be seen just behind homes that were hit hard by Hurricane Helene
A map shows which areas of Cortez, Florida were flooded (red) and which areas were spared (green). Hunters Point was safe from flooding and power outages
Hunters Point is across the street from homes that were submerged in waist-deep water
The walls are framed with two-by-six pieces of wood (standard homes use only two-by-four pieces of wood) and filled with rigid foam insulation.
The windows are all PGT Hurricane quality, meaning they are designed to withstand storms.
Solar panels are connected to vertical seams on the roofs, making them less likely to fly off during hurricanes or other storms.
These solar panels are connected to backup batteries to power homes during power outages. So Thursday, when the power went out in Cortez, these batteries turned on to keep Hunters Point’s lights on.
When the batteries are in ’emergency mode’ they remain fully charged in case the power goes out.
Hurricane Helene storm surges caused community destruction near Hunters Point
Outside, debris and rubble from homes hit by the hurricane piled up
Developers discovered that even when the sun wasn’t shining to charge the batteries, they could still power the homes for about ten days.
Gobuty told DailyMail.com: ‘We generate our own power, and we actually generate more power than the house needs.’
Normally, when no natural disasters occur, the solar panels still help keep electricity bills low because they produce more energy than the homes need.
Swales – sunken lawns – are placed between the houses to direct the water into a retention system, which is essentially a pond that fills with any water that could have flooded the houses.
Williams said there are two retention ponds, but one is still under construction. The functioning pond is located in the middle of the community and all the water flows in there.
Rod and Kelly Darrow’s vacation home in Cortez, just blocks from Hunters Point, was destroyed by five-foot storm surges
The front of the Hunters Point community, where residents first arrived in 2022
He told DailyMail.com: ‘Because of the way the roads are built, they are slightly sloping.’
Williams said some water and debris occurred close to the development, but ultimately no damage was caused.
He said, “I know that at least the one person I spoke to had power during the storm, even as the province lost power.
“There was no damage to homeowners, no water damage.
“So, from what I understand, everyone seems very happy.”
Gobuty was pleased with how well Hunters Point held up during the storm. “I couldn’t dream it would be better because it was such a big storm,” he added.
Only seven or eight people live full-time in the Hunters Point community.
Hunters Point is still being built, with only 31 of the 86 homes fully built. The homes sell for more than $1.25 million.
A brag washed up after the storm near Avenue B in Cortez, Florida
An overhead view of 124th Street showing the houses flooded by the storm, while Hunters Point lay unscathed in the distance
The development is based on the idea of ”generational sustainability,” according to Hunters Point’s website.
The website states: ‘We have proven that responsible construction does not mean that you have to compromise on luxury. Start customizing your home today and build the home you’ve always dreamed of.’
Meanwhile, residents of surrounding neighborhoods faced the wrath of storm surges that flooded and destroyed their homes.
Kelly and Rod Darrow of Illinois have owned their home in Cortez, Florida, for three years. They said five-foot storm surges destroyed their property.
A look at the Cortex homes that suffered greatly from Hurricane Helene storm surge
There are 31 Hunters Point homes fully built out of the planned 86
Gary McAllister’s 35-year-old Cortez home was flooded. He said he was warned to flee the area before the storm hit, but he did not want to leave his home.
He told DailyMail.com that the waves and flooding caused by the storm were “insane” and that the water rose higher than the windows of his home.
McAllister described the water coming into his home as “bilge pump water,” meaning it was contaminated from the moment the storm burst those pumps.
“And it was a bilge pump – if anyone knows anything about a bilge pump – oil and stuff in your bilge. You know, we’re in a fishing village,” he said.
Gary McAllister’s 35-year-old home was inundated by storm surges. The resident said he had never seen such a violent storm
Hurricane Helene began wreaking havoc on Florida’s Gulf Coast Thursday evening as a Category 4 hurricane.
The storm left millions of people in the Southeast without power.
The situation has left people desperate for government support. One TikTok user wrote, “Many people are stranded with little to nothing. WHERE IS FEMA?’
The death toll from the storm has risen to more than 130 people.
FEMA’s website states that the organization has more than 800 employees who “support states affected by the hurricane.”
Damaged items and furniture litter the roads of Cortez
A mattress and other pillows lie outside a Cortez home in the wake of the storm surges
Places like Swannanoa, North Carolina, are in ruins, with homes uprooted and the entire area flooded.
About a third of the storm’s death toll comes from Asheville, North Carolina.
Government, states and municipalities are leading recovery efforts for those left without running water and power in devastated neighborhoods.