A recent success story is Florida’s Babcock Ranch. The master-planned community straddling Charlotte and Lee counties withstood hours of sustained winds over 100 miles per hour (161 kph) when Hurricane Ian made landfall in September 2022.
The damage was so minimal, inspectors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency officials determined the storm had missed the 17,280-acre (69.9 km sq) planned development. Don’t associate the minimal impact with luck. Located miles from the coast, the community’s elevation averages 30 feet [9.14 m], with many structures feet above streets that help channel rain waters toward natural and man-made retention ponds and flow ways.
Working closely with utility Florida Power and Light, a large solar farm, batteries, and transfer stations connected by buried power lines helped ensure the community’s almost 5,000 residents never lost power. With homes and other buildings left mostly unscathed, residents were able to remain home after the storm, and the community welcomed storm refugees to its shelters.
