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In January 25, wildfires burned down entire neighborhoods in LA. But this one house barely had a scratch. In 2018, Hurricane Michael left Mexico Beach looking like this. "It looks like it was hit with a bomb." "Destruction here as far as the eye can see." But this house was still standing. And look at these two houses. One was severely damaged by flooding. The other, completely fine. Even though they're right next to each other. So what's the secret behind these houses?
The typical house in the US looks like this, or like that. But the house I showed you earlier - and these, that also survived hurricanes, are different: they are round. They were actually built with that exact scenario in mind. When a house is round, the wind flows around the home, so there's much less surface for it to push against compared to a rectangular house. "The wind loads are going to be, you know, anywhere from 30 to maybe even 40% lower in that circular shape." David Roueche has been researching how buildings can better resist tornadoes and hurricanes.
The US company Deltec specializes in "hurricane-ready" houses, designed to withstand Category 5 hurricanes. Which is the average speed of many high-speed trains. But don't worry if you don't like this style. You don't have to live in a round house to be protected. Several studies that looked at post-hurricane damage in the U.S. had encouraging findings - at least for newbuilds. "As far as wind related failures, it's very, very rare to see a structural failure in a modern, you know, code compliant home on the coast, which is really amazing progress."
Building codes are safety rules every home has to follow when it's built. They have changed over the years to better protect against hurricanes - one example is Florida. And it has led to new buildings being safer. Homes in high-wind areas must have windows and doors that are protected against flying debris - this can be done through impact-resistant glass or shutters. But there are still many coastal states in the U.S. that have outdated building codes or are not enforcing them enough. Many U.S. homes have weak spots: Like the garage door. It's usually the largest opening in a home. And once wind gets in through it, it creates lots of pressure from the inside.
These videos are tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. It's a non-profit research organization that studies what makes homes more robust in extreme weather situations like hurricanes. "Some garage doors have special components like strengthened jambs and brackets and bracing that allow it to withstand those winds. So if your garage door, you know, can withstand the hurricane winds, the rest of your house, including the roof, is much more likely to survive that storm." This is Rachael Gauthier, a meteorologist working at the institute testing these homes.
Another important safety measure is to have every part of the house firmly connected. This makes sure the wind's forces are transferred into the ground without any part failing. The institute developed the so-called "FORTIFIED" standard which includes all the elements that are needed for a properly prepared house. So what does all of this cost? According to the National Association of Homebuilders, an average U.S. single-family home newly built in 2024 costs roughly 430,000 U.S. dollars to build.
Building a home that is considered FORTIFIED costs about 1% to at most 3% more. Retrofitting an existing home costs about 5-15 percent of the original construction cost. And a Deltec hurricane-ready house? There's a wide range - anywhere from 660,000 to 1.6 million U.S. dollars for a 245 square meter home. Of course, it all depends on where you build your house too, so this is just a rough calculation. "I don't want viewers to come away with the impression that you can only have a hurricane resilient home if you're a, you know, lawyer, married to a doctor and you've got millions of dollars.
It definitely can be done for affordable prices." That was hurricanes. But, what about fires? This is LA's Palisades area after the fires in early 2025. But this house survived the flames. "You see that there's the whole, the whole neighborhood's gone, right?" This is Greg Chasen. He renovated that house and grew up in the neighborhood. "Everything you've known since childhood is just smoking ruins for the most part, and to kind of turn the corner and see that house standing was amazing." While he credits part of the survival to luck and also to the distance to the next house,
there were some choices that made a difference. One is that the house didn't have eaves hanging over the sides. As eaves are often an entry point for embers. "Once the fire gets inside, we're done." Erica Fischer researches wildfires. She visits areas post-wildfire and assesses which homes survived and why they might have. Currently, she and her team are investigating the LA fires. She points out that the metal roofing and siding material also played a role.
"It basically increases the heat capacity of your home." In simple terms: a material such as timber has a low heat capacity. That means that it heats up and ignites quickly when it faces high temperatures. A material such as cement or metal as siding can resist high temperatures and is not combustible. "We're hoping that we slow down the ignition of homes because our home heat capacity is much higher." Then there is one thing that's often forgotten - taking care of what's around your house. And the owner took that seriously: "He cleared everything away from the perimeter of the house. So it didn't burn and connect to the house.
He was up there with a vacuum vacuuming every leaf." "You should look at your neighbors and see, you know, that's your exposure." Remember Covid or just regular flu season? Well it is basically the same: You can do everything to protect yourself against catching it but if everyone around you is doing nothing, chances are high you'll get sick at some point. The experts we spoke to all agree: Preparing your home does help and you should do it. But it's just as important to look at the condition of entire neighborhoods. When newly building or rebuilding neighborhoods - especially in areas with fire-risk -
there are a few things to look out for. Through zoning, cities can control that houses are not built too close to each other. They can also make sure that streets are wide enough for fire trucks to easily get through and that there are enough fire hydrants to use. "The towns can zone and protect people from building up in these different areas because they know they're high-risk." For both of the hazards we've looked at so far, there are some states and programs that make it more affordable
for people to better prepare their home. For example, through mandating insurance discounts or the ability to apply for financial support as a community. And Australia's government even introduced a country-wide program focusing on insurance discounts. The last threat we're looking at is floods. We are probably all know stilt houses. They are often built in flood-prone areas as a way to protect homes when water rises. But in some regions, even those can be at risk - because of rising sea level and more intense rainfall. "The traditional heights are not enough anymore." This is Elizabeth English. She retrofits houses on stilts to solve just that.
"It can be very difficult to add more height onto an existing assembly." That's where these houses come in. The indigenous Manobo people in Agusan Marsh in the Philippines have had a fitting solution for generations. During dry season, some of the houses sit on the ground and when floodwaters hit in rainy season, they simply float. Homes like these are called "amphibious" because just like amphibians they can exist on land and water. Have a look at this image I showed you earlier. The house on the right is an amphibious one that rose with the floodwaters and was therefore not damaged. And these don't have to be fancy or expensive.
"The people themselves remarked that it was inexpensive and it was inexpensive enough that if they saved some money, they would be able to afford it." With her non-profit research organization, she retrofits houses to amphibious ones. Just like this one in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. A floatable foundation is attached and the house is connected to guiding posts so that they don't drift away when floating. "I think it's a very wise investment in resilient housing, coming up with designs which are adaptive. It can very well be a long-term solution for the area."
This is Kamal Kishore, a trained architect and the head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. The Mekong Delta is especially vulnerable as it is threatened by both sea level rise and increasingly intense rainfall. The region is important for the people and the economy as it produces a lot of fish and rice. "It is really important that planning decisions, particularly land use planning decisions, are not based on risk assessments that were undertaken 10 years or 20 years ago because the risk has changed and it continues to change." Of course, that also applies to bigger scope planning, too.
We did a whole video on how to make an entire city more flood proof, linked above. The retrofitted amphibious houses that English focuses on don't work for all types of flooding. She says they probably won't hold up in a flash flood or a storm surge. And there can be legal challenges in regions with strict building codes, as there is a lack of regulations for amphibious structures. The Netherlands is working on adapting the regulations for floating structures. And they already have quite a lot of them.
These are amphibious houses built on a river, for example. And these are floating homes in Amsterdam. All these extreme weather events we looked at are likely to become more frequent or more intense in the future because of climate change. The measures we've seen often are "extras": individual choices rather than standards. But there's one powerful way to change that. "Building codes." "Changing the codes." "Realistic standards." "Regulations." It can help to update building codes - making sure there are minimum standards that protect everyone.
Internationally, lower-income countries, which are more affected by climate change and lack resources to rebuild, could get money from richer countries, something that was decided at the COP28 climate summit in 2023. Noe we would love to hear from you: What is it like in your neighborhood? Any projects that focus on building to better withstand extreme weather? Let us know in the comments, don't forget to subscribe and check out dw.com.
