Florida man who refused to leave his $1.25 million ‘hurricane-proof’ home said it was basically unharmed

• William Fulford chose to stay in his $1.25 million Tampa Bay-area home in Hurricane Milton’s path.
• He told BI Friday that the home had minimal damage and is being powered by a backup solar system.
• He said parts of his area are “devastating,” with roofs torn off trailer-park homes and down power lines.

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

Everything turned out fine. The storm came through and we were about 15 miles from the eye of it.

It actually came in a different direction this time, for us, as opposed to Helene. It came across the back of the house instead of the front. It was a lot of rain, a lot of hard gusts. I think we hit 100 miles per hour a few times, but absolutely no problems at all.

The solar power kicked in when the city’s grid went out, and we’re still running on solar right now. It charges up during the day and then powers us through the night. During the day, officials want you to turn off anything that’s not necessary — the water heater, microwaves, keeping the lights to a minimum. You don’t want to drain the battery too fast.

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

It’ll be awhile before the power is back. They’re working on it. It’s kind of miserable with no air conditioning, but at least the weather hasn’t been too bad — in the 70s and 80s with a slight breeze.

The car I parked in Bradenton, on higher ground, worked out well. My brother-in-law drove me out the next day to pick it up. We didn’t get any storm surge though, none at all.

They were calling for a 10-foot storm surge. That definitely would have been higher than Helene, but nothing came. It never even came over the bulkhead.

We cleaned out the garage on our ground level. Now I’m reorganizing it, but that was never a problem.

My wife was a little nervous, but she always gets that way about these storms. The house never shook. The windows didn’t rattle. It’s kind of exciting to me to see what Mother Nature can do. You stay concerned, you can’t be overconfident. There is that little bit of uncertainty.

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

The area around us, though, is devastating. Right across the street there’s a little trailer park on land lower than we are. Two-thirds of those roofs are gone. We drove through Bradenton yesterday and there was no power for the whole 10 miles. No stop lights are working, and there are power lines all over the road.

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