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These Florida domed homes have survived category 5 hurricanes
[BBC] As Florida has been hit by several devastating hurricanes, homes designed to withstand these extreme storms have gone through a serious test.

In 2018, Hurricane Michael made history, becoming the first category five hurricane on record to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle. It caused widespread destruction and damage, sweeping entire buildings off their foundations, and impacting almost 50,000 structures.

But in a small gulf-front community in Mexico Beach, Florida, something unexpected could be seen amidst the chaos. One home, an unusual caterpillar-like dome-shaped structure, remained standing, barely touched by the 160mph (260km/h) windspeeds. The home, called "Golden Eye", belonged to Margaret Clayton, who had designed and built the house in 2015 with a construction company called Monolithic Domes.

Clayton's neighbour's house "exploded", sending a transformer flying into her house and smashing into the wall. "All the homes around me were destroyed or uninhabitable," she says. Golden Eye, meanwhile, remained intact.

"The wow factor comes when you see those photos," says Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, an assistant professor in the University of Miami's civil, architectural and environmental engineering department. "Total destruction next to a dome house that's still standing. It's quite impressive."

In the US, hurricanes cause more death and destruction than any other extreme weather event. Since 1980, there have been 363 billion-dollar weather disasters in the US, and hurricanes have caused the most damage – more than $1.3 trillion (£993bn) in total, with an average cost of $22.8 billion (£17.4bn) per event. As of 2023, they had caused 6,890 deaths.

With hurricanes rapidly becoming more intense due to climate change
…not because of climate change but because the population has grown, and with it more buildings. But lets not quibble over the greater point…
– and even category one storms being capable of causing severe damage – building storm-resilient homes is becoming increasingly important.

"This type of [climate-resilient] architecture combined with the right engineering solutions could save lives in the face of extreme weather," says Rhode-Barbarigos. "We need to explore building more climate-resistant structures because we know that certain forms are better for certain environments."
Building for risks and pleasures of the local conditions is wise, yes.

Posted by: Skidmark 2024-10-18
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=720611