Christopher Flavelle, Columnist

The Extreme-Weather Defense Nobody Wants

Concrete homes are as close as it gets to stormproof. So why don't Americans buy them?

July 11, 2016 at 8:30 AM EDT

Christopher Flavelle covers climate change and adaptation policy, and the business implications of those policies, for Bloomberg News. He was previously an editorial writer for Bloomberg View and a senior policy analyst at Bloomberg Government. Before joining Bloomberg, he wrote for ProPublica, Slate and Newsweek.

The point at which wood seems iffy.
Photographer: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

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After Hurricane Sandy ruined the home in Breezy Point, Queens, that Diane Hellriegel's father built 60 years ago, she decided to rebuild with concrete. "If another Sandy comes," she told me, "it'll be the only house standing."

That might not be much of an exaggeration. Despite endless warnings that climate change will mean more frequent and severe hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather, 94 percent of new single-family homes sold last year in the U.S. were made with wood frames. Even in the South, where the risk from hurricanes is the greatest, just 1 in 10 new homes are built from concrete.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

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