Retired teacher, 58, buys gorgeous off-the-grid cabin in Maine to escape Florida climate change that sent his home insurance bills skyrocketing

By LAURA PARNABY, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:23, 4 June 2026 | Updated: 15:23, 4 June 2026 A retired teacher has said he is moving into a cabin in rural Maine to escape the eye-popping home insurance bills he was facing in Florida due to climate change.  Ted Borduas, 58, left teaching in Naples after 26 years and purchased an off-the-grid hut in Chesterville, close to Farmington, where he plans to relocate this summer.  Borduas said he considers himself a climate refugee, after increased flooding in the Sunshine State sent his homeowner's insurance fees past 12 percent of his income.  'That's just not sustainable, so I listed my home,' he told Bangor Daily News. 'Insurance costs are just through the roof and I understand it's because storms are becoming more powerful and more frequent.'  Borduas said his cabin, purchased from realtor Crystal DesRoberts, comes complete with an outhouse and wooden stove but no power or water, so he plans to install solar panels and a rainwater collection system.  He envisaged the rustic 432-square-foot lodge as a retreat from the myriad hurricanes and constant threat of floods which battered his Florida home.  Borduas said his annual insurance fees rocketed from about $2,400 to almost $10,000 in just six years due to the worsening climate. Retired teacher Ted Borduas is moving into a rural Maine cabin to escape the eye-watering home insurance premiums he was facing due to climate change in Florida  Borduas, 58, left teaching in Naples after 26 years has purchased an off-the-grid hut (pictured) in Chesterville, close to Farmington, where he plans to relocate this summer The cabin, purchased from realtor Crystal DesRoberts, comes complete with an outhouse and wooden stove, but no power or water, so Borduas plans to install solar panels  'Whether we agree on whether climate change is human-caused or a natural cycle, the undeniable reality is that it's happening,' Borduas said.  'We have to prepare for it on a local and state level and I haven't seen that happening.'  Borduas is originally from Portland, Maine, and he moved to Florida with his wife in 1992 where they raised their three children.  The retired teacher said he is looking forward to being back in his home state, and exploring the Acadia National Park mountainsides.  'I love cold weather and snow, so I'm looking forward to the changing seasons and that first cold, crisp fall day,' he said.  'All these little things that I grew up with and have missed for so long - I'm dying to get back up there.'  Borduas said his long-term goal is to build his own home, with the help of his cousin, and the Maine cabin will serve as a transitionary shelter while this is in the works.  He is part of a movement of climate refugees retreating from once-coveted neighborhoods in the US which have been overcome by the threat of flooding in recent years.  Borduas envisaged the rustic 432-square-foot lodge as a retreat from the myriad hurricanes and constant threat of floods which battered his previous Florida home The cabin, purchased from realtor Crystal DesRoberts, comes complete with an outhouse and wooden stove, but no power or water, so Borduas plans to install solar panels The 432-square-foot rustic cabin is situated in Chesterville, close to Farmington, Maine  Borduas moved from Naples, Florida, due to the worsening impacts of climate change. Naples is shown above after Hurricane Ian caused widespread damage in the city in October 2022   Texas couple Shawn and Sarah Good also fled to Maine from Austin in late April to escape the impact of climate change.  Shawn said that Bangor was much more affordable than Austin, and the climate change crisis had forced them to flee Texas after more than a decade living there.  'We had a lot of reasons to move away from Austin, but the one that hit us the hardest was the weather,' he told Bangor Daily News.  'We were facing our fourth catastrophic event in five years and nobody was doing anything to address it.'  'We see it more as fleeing Texas rather than leaving,' Sara added. 'We haven't been here for very long, but we're really happy with it.'  Shawn and Sara said they grappled with extreme heat, tornadoes, and deadly snow and ice storms while living in Texas, and the situation was only getting worse.  California natives James and Ellie Holden also relocated to another state with their children in 2022 after their home was destroyed by wildfires in 2018. California natives James and Ellie Holden, pictured above in Maine, also relocated to another state with their children in 2022 after their home was destroyed by wildfires in 2018 Shawn added that Bangor was much more affordable than Austin, and the climate change crisis had forced them to flee Texas after more than a decade living there (Pictured: Flames raging close to Bastrop State Park in Austin during wildfires that prompted evacuations in 2011) The Goods moved to leafy Little City in Bangor in late April, an area known for its historic 19th-century architecture and charming walkable streets (Pictured: Downtown Bangor at dawn)  After the Camp Fire in Paradise, northern California which reduced their home to rubble while killing 85 people, the family set their sights on the east coast.  They initially moved to New York, before settling in Proctor, Vermont, a town of fewer than 2,000 near the Green Mountain National Forest. 'I felt excited to go to a new place and be out of the fire place,' said 10-year-old Soraya Holden, one of their five children.  Soraya said she enjoyed rock climbing, gymnastics and living in a climate which is 'not burning hot'.   Climate change is set to reshape American cities over the next few years as people increasingly abandon flood, heat and wildfire 'danger zones' for calmer climes. Areas of Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Providence and Las Vegas are named as the top metro regions forecast to experience the biggest proportional exodus due to flood risk.  The Goods are part of a growing movement of climate refugees - people who leave their home due to extreme weather events like wildfires, sea levels rising and natural disasters Meanwhile, relatively 'safe zones' such as Jefferson County in Louisville, Kentucky, Macomb County in Detroit, Michigan, and Newark County in Passaic, New Jersey are seeing an influx of new residents.  Dr Jeremy Porter, who is head of climate implications at First Street Foundation which produced the peer-reviewed report, previously told the Daily Mail that people are increasingly basing their relocations on climate factors.  'Over the past five years, people have really started to pay attention to the climate data as something that impacts their moves,' he said.  'If you couple flood risk with what we are already seeing from population projections from NASA, we are seeing there are going to be some places that do look dramatically different.' Polls back this up. A 2024 Zillow report found 80 percent of Americans consider climate risks when searching for a new home, while Forbes released a study showing that 30 percent of homeowners say climate change was the reason for their move.  No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. 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