Homes Built To Weather The Storm

[hausdok]

By Carrie Alexander

SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Sunday, February 08, 2009

When Hurricane Ike swept through the Texas Gulf Coast last September , the storm threw a knockout punch to the Bolivar Peninsula. Much of the coastal town of Gilchrist was devastated.

Still standing, however, were nearly all of the homes built in Audubon Village, a community less than two miles east of Rollover Pass in Gilchrist.

The reason: They were built to standards set by the Fortified for Safer Living program, which specifies design, construction and landscaping guidelines that increase a home's resistance to hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Homes in Beachtown, a 260-acre community on Galveston Island's East End, also came through Hurricane Ike mostly unscathed. Those homes, too, were built to Fortified for Safer Living standards.

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