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About one-third of Florida's roughly 850,000 mobile homes were
installed to current code, according to industry data. The
standards were devised after Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in
1992, uprooting thousands of mobile homes like tin cans.
The rest still have their original underpinnings, making them
even more vulnerable to a catastrophe like Irma, whose maximum
sustained winds on Sunday afternoon were 120 miles per hour (195
kph), with storm surges expected to rise above 15 feet (4.6 m).
"These can be lifted in the air like 'The Wizard of Oz,'" said
Jose Aguilar, 35, a maintenance worker who spoke to Reuters
while making plans to leave the Parkridge Mobile Home Park in
Pompano Beach ahead of the storm. "This house is just not as
important as your life. It's only a house."
On Sunday afternoon, officials posted photos of six mobile homes
in Palm Bay, Florida, shredded by strong winds with debris
scattered among palm trees.
There are more than 5,000 mobile home communities across the
state. Most residents own their homes and pay monthly rent to
park in a lot. The arrangement is popular among retirees as well
as low-income families looking for an affordable housing option.
There is no cheap way to upgrade an old mobile home, according
to the Federal Emergency Management Administration. Florida has
subsidized more than 30,000 upgrades. But that may not help with
a hurricane like Irma, said Jim Ayotte, head of the Florida
Manufactured Housing Association.
Even homes with foundations can buckle under the kind of winds
and storm surges that a Category 3 storm like Irma delivers,
experts said. Mobile homes, even those secured by the required
steel bands, have less resilience.
"It could be, when the storm passes, the frame is all that's
left," said Ayotte.
Residents of mobile home parks visited by Reuters before the
storm were mostly heeding orders to evacuate.
Patty Marrero, 52, lives in a mobile home near Fort Lauderdale
and said a lifetime in Florida had taught her to flee. By
Saturday morning, she had gone to a friend's house in the nearby
city of Sunrise.
"I lived through Hurricane Andrew in a cement house, and that
was scary enough," she said.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and
Patrick Rucker in Washington; Additional reporting by Andy
Sullivan in Miami; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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