How This One House In Mexico Beach Survived Hurricane Michael

When Russell King and his nephew, Dr. Lebron Lackey built their dream house in the Gulf of Mexico, they installed an outdoor security camera, writes The New York Times. Its video footage became the only view of their property as Hurricane Michael whipped through last week.

The camera shows a tunnel of gray fury worsening by the hour as the most intense storm recorded in the history of the Florida Panhandle got closer. Lackey watched the security footage from over 400 miles away, sure his house was about to be destroyed.

Among the Ruins of Mexico Beach Stands One House, Built ‘For the Big One’ https://t.co/2uUpsj9034

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 14, 2018

But it wasn’t and instead, the home was the last surviving beachfront house on his block. Lackey said it was built to withstand 250-mile-an-hour winds, and was fashioned from poured concrete, reinforced by steel cables and rebar and had additional concrete bolstering the corners of the house. The space under the roof was minimized so wind couldn’t get in and lift it off. The house was elevated, so that it would stay above the surge of seawater that tends to come with powerful hurricanes.

“We wanted to build it for the big one,” Lackey said to The Times. “We just never knew we’d find the big one so fast.”