CNN Correspondent: 3Former NFL 4lineman turned developer Syd Kitson bought 91,000 acres of Florida 5wetlands and then sold most of it back to the State so his dream town would be 6surrounded by protected nature, which in a storm is the best water storage system ever 7invented.
He also 8buried Babcock's power lines, 9landscaped with only 10native plants, and engineered the whole town for 11high winds. Then came the test, category 4 Ian, which 12stalled over the 5,000 new 13residents for eight hours, with Syd in the 14middle-worried sick 15all the while.
Syd Kitson: Next morning I got up, I jumped in my truck and I started driving around. I spent four or five hours. I hit every single neighborhood here, talked to the people, but people were 16wandering around like, ¡®What just happened?¡¯ Because on TV, all you saw was 17destruction, unfortunately loss of life, and just all around us, massive flooding. And they're walking around going ¡®Wow, we're looking pretty good.¡¯
CNN Correspondent: While neighboring towns were 18devastated, Babcock Ranch never flooded, never lost power, and has since survived Hurricane Milton 19in similar fashion.
Syd Kitson: We've talked to a number of the insurance companies and they're open to 20rewarding good behavior. Rewarding building the homes the right way, building a community the right way, because it's just not the home construction, but the community itself also needs to be storm-resistant.
