Helen and Milton put this net-zero, hurricane-proof community to the test. The lights stayed on as everything went dark CNN

William Fulford moved from Virginia Beach, Virginia to a new waterfront development in Florida in 2023. Nestled between Sarasota Bay and the southwestern tip of Tampa Bay, the new home in Bradenton Beach is everything Fulford, a retired custom home builder, ever wanted.

The developers of the new Hunters Point community, Pearl Homes, billed the property as the first “net-zero” single-family home development in the United States, meaning residents generate more energy from solar panels than they need, with excess energy either stored or fed back into the grid. Sold — in a state where most electricity is generated by burning natural gas, a planet-warming fossil fuel.

They boast some of the most durable, energy-efficient and hurricane-proof homes in the country: the streets surrounding the homes are intentionally designed to flood so the homes don't. Electricity and internet lines are buried to avoid wind damage. Reinforced concrete walls, hurricane-proof windows and doors protected with a layer of foam insulation, provide added security against the most violent storms.

Climate resilience and storm protection were built into the fabric of the house. And while the newly developed homes have weathered a few storms since people moved in in February 2023, Hurricanes Helen and Milton put those properties to the real test in the past two weeks.

Most residents living in Hunters Point heeded the mandatory evacuation before Hurricane Milton made landfall but Fulford, 76, stayed behind with wife Suen, just as they did during Hurricane Helen last month.

They stocked up on water and groceries. Fulford drove the car to higher ground. He tied all the patio and back deck furniture together. They brought everything from the garage, which is the entire ground floor, to the living space on the second floor. And, in the worst-case scenario, Suen insisted on getting a life preserver.

“I'm just pretty sure this house has energy and everything. They built a great house, a strong house,” Fulford said. “And I just feel comfortable. I think we're pretty high, even if we get storm surges.”

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night on Siesta Key, about 30 minutes south of Hunters Point. The storm wiped out large parts of Florida, including areas around Hunter's Point such as Anna Maria Island and Bradenton. The storm dropped more than 18 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, representing a 1-in-1000-year rainfall event for the region.

Milton knocks out power to more than 2.5 million customers across the state, including Manatee County, where Hunters Point homes are located.

But for Fulford and his neighbors, the light was on.

“Everybody around us was completely dark around five o'clock in the morning and you saw the lights on in our house,” Marshall Gobuty, founder and president of Pearl Homes Development, told CNN. “So, it was really an experiment in why we did it.”

Residents who lived through both hurricanes told CNN they were unharmed. Neither the high tides from Helen flooded nor the strong winds from Milton destroyed their homes. Solar power and battery storage keep the lights on all night and the following days.

“I hope people take a hard look at all of this and start paying attention to what's going on here,” Fulford said. “Everything is changing,” he says, referring to the powerful storms he now sees every year.

When Gobuti began the design process for Hunter's Point, it was imperative that the houses be able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. According to the US Green Building Council, it is the first residential development in the world to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) net-zero certification.

Each three-story home is designed as follows: The ground floor is a garage designed to drain rising water through flood vents. The living spaces begin on the second floor, which is intentionally raised 16 feet above sea level. From the roof to its foundation, steel straps secure the entire structure. The solar panels are attached to the raised vertical seams of the roof to keep them from blowing away.

The property also sits in a major flood zone, meaning homes need to be elevated to meet Florida building codes Still, developers used 7 feet instead of the required 3 feet of dirt fill and to be safe.

“The idea is that if water comes into the garage, which is good, because we have flood beds that are specifically there, there's still a 9-foot garage,” Gobuti said. “It must be an impossibility (for flooding to enter). We knew it would never happen.”

But these features come at a cost. Homes are selling for $1.4 million to $1.9 million, at least $600,000 more than other new homes in the area, according to the community's website.

As a custom builder who built hurricane-proof homes in Virginia, Fulford said he was impressed with how his new Florida home turned out. So far, the project is still under construction, with 31 out of 86 houses to be built.

Fortunately, Hurricane Milton's landfall location, south of Tampa Bay, spared the area from the worst-case scenario forecasts of storm surges of up to 15 feet. Instead, Milton drove the worst storm surge along the 65-mile stretch of coastline between Siesta Key and Fort Myers Beach.

But in a climate-change-ravaged future, Hunters Point residents say they need to prepare for what's ahead, building more homes and designing them that way.

“Solar, batteries, and the way we build homes will be part of the future, as we see it being implemented.” Gobuti said. “The world is changing, and people are waiting to see this experiment.”