Florida man in $1.25 million ‘hurricane proof’ home said he was unharmed

• William Fulford chose to stay in his $1.25 million Tampa Bay area home in the path of Hurricane Milton.
• He told BI on Friday that the house had minimal damage and was powered by a backup solar system.
• He said parts of his area are “devastated,” with roofs ripped from trailer park homes and power lines.

This essay is based on a conversation with William Fulford, a 76-year-old retired home builder who bought what he believes is a “hurricane-proof” home in Hunters Point, an 86-unit community in Cortez, Floridaone hour southwest of downtown Tampa. Earlier this week, he told Business Insider his decision not to evacuate even though his house was in the path of Hurricane Milton. The conversation with Fulford has been edited for length and clarity.

Everything went well. The storm passed and we were about 15 kilometers from the eye.

In fact, this time it came in a different direction, for us, unlike Helene. It reached the back of the house instead of the front. It rained a lot, lots of hard gusts. I think we hit 100 miles an hour a few times, but no problem.

Solar started when the city grid went out, and we’re still running on solar right now. It charges during the day and then feeds us during the night. During the day, officials want you to turn off anything you don’t need: the water heater, the microwaves, keeping the lights to a minimum. You don’t want to drain your battery too quickly.

We still have everything we stored on the second floor, but I’ll wait to take it down again when it’s back on and we can use the elevator.

It will be a while before the power comes back on. They are working on it. It’s a bit miserable without AC, but at least the weather hasn’t been too bad – in the 70s and 80s with a slight breeze.

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The car I parked in Bradenton on higher ground worked fine. My brother-in-law took me the next day to pick it up. However, we didn’t have any seasickness, not a single one.

They were calling for a 10 foot storm surge. He definitely would have been taller than Helene, but nothing came of it. It didn’t even go through the bulkhead.

We cleaned out the garage downstairs. I’m rearranging it now, but that was never a problem.

My wife was a little nervous, but she always gets that way with these storms. The house never shook. The windows didn’t shake. It’s kind of exciting for me to see what Mother Nature can do. Stay worried, you can’t be overconfident. There is some uncertainty.

But that’s why I like to stay. If something happens, I can take care of it. One thing that happened was that our sliding doors in the back started to open. I think the wind shook them. I went downstairs, got a piece of wood, cut it to the right length and stuck it in there. If I hadn’t been here, the wind might have blown the doors right off and blown our living room.

The area around us, however, is devastating. Just across the street is a small trailer park on lower ground than us. Two thirds of these ceilings have disappeared. We went through Bradenton yesterday and there was no power for 10 miles. There is no stop light and there are power lines all over the road.

It all comes down to personal choice. I’d rather be here and know what’s going on with my home than somewhere far away.