Last month we were invited to the live screening of The Last House Standing, a documentary about the fragility of the U.S. housing stock in the face of natural disasters. This topic is near and dear to us as we live and design homes on the coast of South Carolina, an area often at risk of hurricanes. The movie was written, directed and produced by George Siegal, a former weather reporter come founder of Move the World Films, with our friends at Lerato, LLC rounding out the producing team. This documentary is a deep dive into the challenges of building in risk prone areas, minimum building standards, the tendency of certain builders to build fast and cheap, insurance industry practices in the wake of hurricanes, fires, earthquakes or floods and the resulting burden put upon the residents.
“Every year people lose their homes and many rebuild the exact same way. Most people have no idea if their insurance will actually get them whole again after a major disaster. We roll the dice on where we live with no true sense of what the hazards really are. When you watch The Last House Standing you’ll meet people who are living the nightmare, and it doesn’t have to be this way.” George Siegal
One of the locales featured prominently in the film is Mexico Beach, Florida where 2018’s Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm, made landfall and that sadly destroyed the vast majority of the town, causing 74 deaths and ultimately $25 billion in damage. The devastating video of Hurricane Michael’s aftermath showed house after house flattened and block after block of infrastructure destroyed. One house did remain though - a house that had been built well above the minimum code standards and withstood the 160mph winds with little to no damage - thus forcing this research and in turn becoming the movie’s name sake.
That last house standing in Mexico Beach supports the concept that the ability exists to design and build truly resilient structures as long as the resources and desire is there. Unfortunately, the more typical cycle that plays out is to design / build to the bare minimum building code, watch as Mother Nature damages or destroys and then rebuild in a similar way. This documentary challenges all of us industry professionals to interrupt this cycle and all residents (whether home owners, renters or short term visitors) to understand the standards that a home is built to and when necessary, demand more.
A point of hope in the film was the director’s highlight of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit that advocates for affordable and safe homes and encourages home ownership for historically underserved families. A survey of their homes demonstrated a higher resilience when compared to the typical volume builder products; this was achieved by going above the code minimum building standards. Further evidence that designing and building with resiliency in mind is not just for high budget homes.
As we are squarely in the 2022 hurricane season, this movie should be an impetus for engineers, builders, architects, insurance providers, material suppliers, building inspectors, government agencies to examine their industry’s practices and advocate for higher standards. Likewise real estate professionals, home inspectors and consumers should elevate the conversation about the home’s safety and resilience.
Click here to watch The Last House Standing trailer and to gain access to the documentary.