Despite the dire predictions for the future of South Florida, people really want to stay here, for as long as they can. This episode, we’re exploring the solutions that allow people to keep living in the places they love. 

Our first stop: Richburg, South Carolina, where buildings get destroyed, for research. It’s where the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, or IBHS, is conducting research on how to make our homes and buildings more resilient to the elements. “We’re trying to make sure that we are building strong and effective and keeping Mother Nature out,” said Anne Cope, IBHS’ chief engineer.  

Since 2020, much of Florida has required all new construction to meet IBHS’ highest standard of building — what they call FORTIFIED Gold. The standard includes things like sealed roofs, impact-resistant windows and doors, plus thicker exterior walls.

To see what these standards look like in real life, we leave the lab and head to Coconut Grove, a neighborhood in Miami, to check out Brad Herman’s house.

“If anybody doesn’t believe in sea level rise, come to Coconut Grove and see for yourself,” Herman said. After years of repetitive damage from storms and hurricanes, he knew he needed to do something to his house if he wanted to keep living there. “You can’t stop water … you got to figure out a way to live with it,” he said. So he hired a team of architects to turn his home into a beautiful above-ground bunker.

The first thing they did was elevate the entire house 18 feet above sea level. Then, they installed IBHS-approved features, like hurricane impact windows. 

In this house, Herman is about as safe as anyone can be. But he knows that long term it won’t mean much if the rest of his community cannot also retrofit their homes. “I could raise my seawall, but how about everybody else who’s here for the next 20 miles around me?” he said. “Not going to happen.”

Later in the episode, we head down to the Florida Keys, a place that’s even more vulnerable than Miami, but is often looked to as a model of resilience.