At a glance
- Devastating Impact: Hurricane Milton severely flooded and destroyed the home of Michelle and her family in Tampa, leaving them temporarily displaced and without a safe place to live.
- Resilient Partnership: Verizon’s Community Disaster Resilience initiative partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build and repair homes nationwide using storm-resistant, “FORTIFIED” construction standards that protect against future extreme weather.
- A New Beginning: Through this partnership, Michelle and her family will now live in a brand-new, disaster-resilient home in a 23-home development in Brandon, Florida, restoring their sense of safety and peace.
When Hurricane Milton tore through Tampa, Florida, on October 9, 2024, Michelle watched as floodwaters destroyed everything in her home—including clothes, furniture, and bedding—and shattered her sense of security.
“That was the scariest moment of my life,” Michelle says. Although it wasn’t in a flood zone, water cascaded throughout her parents’ house, where Michelle was living with her sons and granddaughter. The family survived the storm but the house was uninhabitable. They bounced between a shelter and family members’ homes for months.
Michelle and her family weren’t alone. Back-to-back-hurricanes caused widespread devastation in the Tampa Bay area that autumn, flooding homes and destroying roofs.
To help people recover from the storm, Verizon Community Disaster Resilience, an initiative to help communities prepare for, respond to and recover from extreme weather events, partnered with Habitat for Humanity, a global non-profit organization that helps families in need of affordable housing. The partnership works to build new homes, repair homes and provide homeowners with essential, disaster-resilient structural improvements.
For homes in Florida, such upgrades include storm shutters, hurricane-resistant windows and garage doors, as well as roof trusses and roof straps to help buildings withstand hurricane-force winds. This type of FORTIFIED construction in a home like Michelle’s leads to fewer insurance claims and greater cost savings for homeowners after disasters, reducing loss frequency by as much as 69 percent and loss severity by up to 32 percent.
“Building disaster-resilient homes brings stability to these families, and the security that they have a place to go during a storm—and they know after the storm, they’re going to have a place to live and feel safe,” says Richard Rogers, chief development officer for Habitat for Humanity of Tampa Bay Hillsborough.
Community Disaster Resilience sponsored the construction of a new home for Michelle, her adult sons, and her granddaughter. At a dedication ceremony, the family was welcomed to a brand-new, 23-home development in Brandon, Florida.
When a natural disaster happens, we are on the scene recovering the networks, but we also want to help build empowered and prepared communities.
Donna Epps
Senior Vice President and Chief Responsibility Officer at Verizon
“When a natural disaster happens, we are on the scene recovering the networks, but we also want to help build empowered and prepared communities,” explains Donna Epps, senior vice president and chief responsibility officer at Verizon. “[Community Disaster Resilience] was born to help communities and families prepare for natural disasters with strength, respond with urgency, and in this case, recover with resilience.”
Having a house where her family can feel safe and secure is what is most important to Michelle. “It’s your sense of peace, sense of comfort, a sense of family,” she says. “That’s what home means to me.”
For more information and to learn more, visit Verizon Community Disaster Resilience.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) powers and empowers how its millions of customers live, work and play, delivering on their demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity and security. Headquartered in New York City, serving countries worldwide and nearly all of the Fortune 500, Verizon generated revenues of $138.2 billion in 2025. Verizon’s world-class team never stops innovating to meet customers where they are today and equip them for the needs of tomorrow. For more, visit verizon.com or find a retail location at verizon.com/stores.