Why did these Florida cities escape the wrath of Hurricane Ian?

Hurricane Jan was one of the strongest storms Florida in recorded history, roared ashore last Wednesday with nearly Category 5 winds strong enough to topple trees, destroy buildings and send coastal waters inland.

Cities across Florida bore the brunt of the storm, killing more than 100 people and taking months or years to rebuild.

However, some cities have survived the worst—not because of individual planning and preparation, but because of long-term planning by experts and officials.

Even as climate-related disasters such as hurricanes increase, these places can serve as examples of how communities can plan with resilience in mind.

Construction of the best buildings

Punta Gorda is located on the southwest coast of Florida, near where A hurricane Ian made landfall with winds of up to 150 miles per hour (241 kilometers per hour) and a storm surge of at least twelve feet (3.7 meters).

For residents, it brought back memories of another devastating storm: Hurricane Charley, which struck southwest Florida in 2004 as a Category 4 hurricane that killed more than a dozen people.

After Charley, some people in Punta Gorda were rebuilding, bracing for the next major storm.

Many buildings in the city, such as the local high school, were rebuilt to meet stricter building codes updated in 2007, which help make sure buildings are durable and protected from the elements, according to Washington Post.

While Hurricane Ian caused extensive damage in parts of Punta Gorda, many new buildings appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm.

“Everything from 2007 code onwards was pretty much fine,” Joe Shortz, owner of a local construction business, told the newspaper. This includes a high school that Reuters reports didn’t even break the window during the storm.

This relative success of new buildings is evidence that building codes can work, said Nicholas Rajkovic, a professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo. Message.

Nutrition from the sun

Nearly a week after Ian made landfall, more than 400,000 customers in Florida are still without power. in accordance with poweroutage.us.

In Charlotte County, one of the hardest hit areas, more than 50 percent of people are in the dark. But one Charlotte County community keeps the lights on thanks to solar panels.

The isolated town of Babcock Ranch, just over 10 miles from Fort Myers, is powered by solar panels on people’s rooftops and a massive solar farm, according to CNN.

The town of around 2,000 families welcomed its first residents in 2018 as a community designed specifically with climate crisis the grid adds, from solar panels that generate electricity to streets that control floodwaters and underground power lines to avoid wind damage from storms.

Ian was one of the first really big storms to challenge this model, and Babcock Ranch seems to have stood the test. In addition to maintaining power during the storm, CBS News reports that very little in the community – other than some downed trees and missing roof tiles – was seriously damaged.

Stay away from the shore

Just as communities can build their infrastructure with hurricanes in mind, communities can also think about it where build for hurricanes.

Some of the communities that faced the most damage and now face the longest recovery process were Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel. Both communities were located near the center of the storm when it made landfall, but both are also “barrier islands,” the long, thin islands that often line ocean shores.

These islands are usually low, sloping and right along the beach, making them a desirable and picturesque place to live. But these same features make them extremely vulnerable to storms coming from the coast.

Sanibel Island has no vehicular access to the mainland after last week’s storm destroyed the Sanibel Causeway Bridge, the only road from the island. Cited by CNN the local fire chief, who says “every” house on the island has some sort of damage, and alligators and snakes are running around.

In Fort Myers Beach, photos show rows of destroyed homes and debris strewn everywhere.

“It’s an event on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, where you have to rebuild everything, including infrastructure,” said Jesse M. Keenan, a real estate professor at Tulane University. Associated Press.

“We can’t go back to the way things were – we can’t afford it.”

Barrier islands are dynamic landscapes, even without a hurricane, that are shaped by the movement of waves and sand along the shore and are subject to severe erosion. But when massive storm surges and hurricane-force winds are added to the mix, things can change dramatically.

In the 1920s, a hurricane split Captiva Island, which is near Sanibel, in half, according to the AP. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy split the Mantaloking barrier island in New Jersey.

These islands are also the first areas of land hit by hurricanes when they make landfall, leaving residents exposed to the storms before they have a chance to weaken over land.

The climate crisis will expose the barrier islands to more than just hurricanes. Low-lying barrier islands face a threat to existence sea ​​level rise — building houses (like some houses on the beaches of North Carolina that made headlines this year) at risk of falling into the ocean.

Barrier islands can be home to communities that have lived there for generations or beloved beach towns. Some experts are now questioning the relative costs and benefits of rebuilding these islands after powerful storms like Hurricane Yang, the AP reports.

Although barrier islands face the brunt of dangerous storms, they also help protect areas along the mainland from flooding and erosion by mitigating storm surges and waves. in accordance with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In addition, when these islands remain uninhabited, they are important habitat for animals such as sea turtles and shorebirds, the agency added.