Home in Mexico Beach, Florida, Still Stands Strong After Hurricane Michael

A well-built home in Mexico Beach, Florida, is still standing after Hurricane Michael flattened the town last week.

Video footage shared by the U.S. Coast Guard showed the home still standing amid the rubble of destroyed neighborhoods.

Video footage shared by the U.S. Coast Guard showed the home still standing amid the rubble of destroyed neighborhoods on Oct. 15, 2018. US Coast Guard video capture

The home, dubbed the “Sand Palace,” suffered some water damage and the ground floor was washed away. But it was constructed on 40-foot pilings, allowing it to be protected from storm surge.

“We wanted to build it for the big one,” home co-owner Lebron Lackey told The New York Times. “We just never knew we’d find the big one so fast.”

The home lost its utilities, heating, and air unit.

Public records show that the home has been assessed for $400,000. It is reinforced by steel cables and rebar.

“We’re thinking that we need to build a house that would survive for generations,” Lackey’s uncle, Russell King, who also helped build the home, told The Times.

The home has four bedrooms, two kitchens, four and a half bathrooms, and an elevator. It is usually rented out to people on vacation.

“Our home is located in the quiet seaside town of Mexico Beach, Fl. With beautiful white beaches and a family-oriented atmosphere, Mexico Beach is the perfect beach vacation ‘off the beaten path,’” said post on its Facebook page in May.

The home is now a staging area for rescue workers and news crews. “We feel blessed to be able to provide any shelter possible to these volunteers,” they said on the page, Fox News reported.

State officials are starting to question building codes in the wake of the storm.

“After every event, you always go back and look what you can do better,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters in reference to how homes are built in the state. “After [Hurricane] Andrew, the codes changed dramatically in our state. Every time something like this happens, you have to say to yourself, ‘Is there something we can do better?’”

Meanwhile, search-and-rescue crews are still picking through the remains of hurricane-damaged communities to search for survivors.

“The amount of stress that people are in, not just from losing everything, but not having phones, power, food, water, puts a huge toll on the emotional factor of people stuck in these houses,” Trevor Lewis, a rescue worker, told The Associated Press. “And it really ups the ante a whole lot more.”

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are visiting Florida this week to inspect the damage.

Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach on Oct. 10 as a strong Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds.