The issue is that most of the old houses in Florida were very cheaply built. When hurricane Andrew hit Homestead Florida as a Cat5 it destroyed everything. Most of the houses were glorified double wides. However, what they did learn was that the houses that had HIP roofs did not have their roofs ripped off. The houses with the flat gable end did. This is because when the winds hit the hip roof they deflected up. So, they might have superficial damage, but the roof stayed in place.
They should have made HIP roofs as code. When the hurricane hit Mexico beach on the panhandle there was one brand new house that was left after a direct hit. It was on concrete reinforced pilings. They should have made this code, but they did not because it would make beachfront houses only affordable for the Super rich. Not the regular rich.
I did some research on the house in Mexico Beach that remained standing and suffered little to no damage from a Cat 5 Hurricane, even though it was directly on the beach and was surrounded by homes that were completely destroyed.
I was thinking, no one could be that lucky there must be a reason.
,
The home not only had concrete reinforced pilings, but the pilings were much deeper than code and the house was built using a method called Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF), basically poured concrete reinforced walls surrounded by at least 2 inches of high-grade insulation and a built-in water barrier.
Here’s CNN Report on the Home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLjsDQyW5Y8