Some houses are being built to stand up to hurricanes and sharply cut emissions, too

Bonny Paulson's home, with a rounded shape that looks something like a ship, shrugged off Category 5 winds that might otherwise have collapsed it when Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle five years ago. 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. Some developers are building homes like Paulson's with an eye toward making them more resilient to the extreme weather that’s increasing with climate change, and friendlier to the environment at the same time. A person's home is one of the biggest ways they can reduce their individual carbon footprint. Buildings release 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 construction materials, like concrete and steel. Deltec, the company that built Paulson's home, says that only one of the nearly 1,400 homes it's built 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. Other companies are developing entire neighborhoods that are both resistant to hurricanes and contribute less than average to climate change. To reduce vulnerability to flooding, home sites are raised 3 feet above code. Roads are raised, too, and designed to direct accumulating rainfall away and onto the ground where it may be absorbed. Steel roofs with seams allow solar panels to be attached so closely that it's difficult for high winds to get under them, and the homes have batteries that kick in when power is knocked out. Paulson, in Mexico Beach, says she's now enjoying energy costs of about $32 per month, far below the roughly $250 she said she paid in a previous home. “I don’t really feel that the population is taking into effect the environmental catastrophes, and adjusting for it,” she said. “We’re building the same old stuff that got blown away.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.