In 2022, Dave Blancett, 72, and his wife Maria, 71, were living in Cape Coral, Florida, when Hurricane Ian hit. "We had storm surge. We lost our roof. We lost our pool cage," Maria tells CNBC Make It.

Hurricane Ian was one of the deadliest storms in Florida's history and caused an estimated $112 billion in damage across the state.

The considerable damage to their home made the Blancetts consider moving and they soon turned their sights on a "hurricane-proof" community called Babcock Ranch.

The community suffered some fallen trees and damaged roofs during Ian, but the homes there never lost power or water, and there was no flooding. After learning how little disruption the major storm had caused at Babcock, the couple visited the town in 2023 and put down a $125,000 deposit on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house.

What is Babcock Ranch?

Babcock Ranch is a planned community of 10,000 residents near Fort Myers that claims to be the first solar-powered town in the United States.

The land was originally a privately-owned 91,000-acre ranch — an area about five times the size of the island of Manhattan.

"When I first met the Babcock family, I explained what I wanted to do with the property," Syd Kitson, CEO of Kitson & Partners and Founder of Babcock Ranch, tells CNBC.

"Now, I couldn't pay as much as everybody else, but what I told them was we were going to take that 91,000 acres and preserve 80% of it. And then we were going to build the most sustainable new town that's ever been developed."

In 2006, Kitson and his investors bought the land for about $700 million. As promised, the team preserved 73,000 of the 91,000 acres and sold them to the state of Florida for $350 million.

The remaining 18,000 acres would house Babcock Ranch.

"We set out to create the most sustainable, the most resilient, and the most innovative new town that's ever been developed," Kitson says.

Kitson and his investors spent years surveying the land to figure out the best way to go about making the town "hurricane-proof." To start, they decided to build the community 30 feet above sea level on preserved wetlands which would help to reduce flooding during a storm surge.

"We are working with Mother Nature and not against Mother Nature because if you work against Mother Nature, you're going to fail every single time," Kitson says.

"In order to be the most sustainable new town in the United States, the first thing we knew was we had to have a renewable energy source," Kitson says. The town partnered with Florida Power and Light, an electric services company, to install 687,000 solar panels that provide Babcock Ranch with 150 megawatts of energy.

"We're the first solar-powered town in the United States and we're very, very proud of that."

Every house in the community was built with reinforced roofs and impact-resistant windows to withstand hurricane winds up to 150 mph or a Category 4 storm. And the towns power lines were installed underground.

In Babcock Ranch, all homes, commercial buildings and centers are required to be built to a minimum of bronze Florida Green Building Coalition standards.

Babcock Ranch also has a K-12 school, retail shops and a sports facility.

The town's first downtown area, Founder's Square, broke ground in 2016, and some of the model homes opened in 2017. The first residents moved into Babcock Ranch in 2018.

Today, more than 4,000 houses have sold, ranging in price between $300,000 to over $4 million.

By 2035, the community will complete its planned 19,500 residences and six million square feet of commercial space.

The Blancetts move to Babcock Ranch

In April 2024, Dave and Maria moved into their brand new, never-lived 2,400-square-foot home in the gated community of Edgewater Shores at Babcock Ranch.

The couple bought the house for $835,457 with a down payment of $309,370 and have a monthly mortgage payment of $4,897. They pay about $1,648 a quarter in HOA fees.

The home's total cost covered capital improvements designed for both luxury and protection, featuring a pool, outdoor kitchen, and a Kevlar storm shutter over the pool cage.

"I like to say that we moved 30 miles inland and 30 feet up. The area here had been tested by Hurricane Ian," Dave says.

That October, just about six months after the Blancetts moved to Babcock Ranch, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, but the couple didn't feel nervous about it at all.

"It is a much safer environment in a hurricane with all of the climate-resistant things that the developers did," Maria says. "When Milton came through we were not worried at all. This beautiful lake that you see behind our home, the level never rose to where I was nervous compared to the lake behind our home in Cape Coral that actually rose within feet of our door."

Hurricane Milton was classified a Category 3 hurricane. Its impact caused a tornado outbreak that produced at least 19 confirmed tornadoes and hurricane-force wind gusts, according to the National Weather Service.

"We had seven people, four dogs and four cats staying with us," Dave says. "With all the power lines being underground, we didn't lose power."

The Blancetts weren't the only ones sheltering others during Milton. The entire community was designated a shelter by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Babcock Ranch sheltered around 2,000 Floridians in the town's school and the sports facility.

"These people were incredibly appreciative," Kitson says. "They were frightened because they didn't know [what was] going to happen to their own homes, but they were just happy to be in a safe environment."

After surviving two hurricanes at Babcock Ranch with virtually no damage, Kitson says he hopes the community will inspire others.

"What I like for Babcock Ranch to ultimately be is an example as how to do it right and to be a blueprint for other communities throughout the country," he says. "And very candidly, I hope they even do it better than we've done it."

The Blancetts say their experience with Hurricane Milton compared to what things were like for them during Ian, makes the gamble they took on this innovative new town well worth it.

"I don't think we're going to be planning on moving from Babcock Ranch or into a new house, for that matter, for several years," Dave says. "We feel very safe here and so do all of our friends."

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