Don't stay in mobile home during Category 3 storm

[Aquawind]

Just in case anyone missed the obvious..

Paul

Don't stay in mobile home during Category 3 storm

By ROBERT VAN WINKLE
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS
Published by news-press.com on June 4, 2005

Q Will I still be able to ride out a storm in my mobile home during a Category 3 hurricane?

— Jose, Southwest Florida resident

A This question comes from an NBC-2 TV viewer and deserves a measured response.

A Category 3 hurricane is nothing to mess around with or to try and outguess. Winds will blow between 111 and 130 miles per hour and storm surge is generally 9 to 12 feet above normal. The National Hurricane Center put together a paragraph describing the destruction that is possible when a Category 3 hurricane hits. Here it is:

"Damage to shrubbery and trees with foliage blown off trees and large trees blown down; Mobile homes and poorly constructed signs destroyed; Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane; Flooding near the coast destroys smaller structures with larger structures damaged by battering from floating debris."

Doesn't sound good, does it? Every hurricane is different and during Hurricane Charley we actually did see some mobile homes make it through, but they were newer mobile homes built within the last few years and in compliance with the latest building codes.

My question to you is why would you want to try to ride out a Category 3 storm in a mobile home when you know you'll experience at least 111-mph wind? It's just not worth the risk to you or your family.

My advice is to have your evacuation plan ready if you are told to go. There will be a lot of people working day and night to make sure you get the order to evacuate in enough time ... but it will be up to you to be ready.

Hope this helps you make a decision about your safety in a mobile home during a Category 3 storm.


http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 40476/1053

[CFL]

I have two elderly friends who live in mobile homes here in the Pensacola area. Both evacuated during Ivan and are glad they did: their homes actually shifted despite being tied down. One of the homes survived but had to be retied; the other one was a complete loss. Mobile homes just aren't the place to be during a hurricane.

[drudd1]

A mobile home is not the place to be for sure. We have an area about 9 miles from here that has parcels, about 5 acres in size, and most of the properties have mobile homes. That area lost many of the mobile homes during Charlie. Most looked like you had blown them up with a bomb.

[GalvestonDuck]

Stay in a mobile home during a hurricane? Heck, I wouldn't stay in my house during a Cat 1, much less a Cat 3!

[Trader Ron]

I wouldn't stay in a mobile home in a Category Two. Not much difference between 110 and 115 MPH winds.

[LAwxrgal]

Mobile homes in low-lying areas are no place to be during any tropical system. Heck they evacuated my sister's mobile home park during a tropical storm.

[KG4HPN]

I remember, the same summer that brought us Floyd, we stayed home during Isabel. She was "just" a Cat 1 storm and forecast to stay well off the coast of central Florida. She "only" brought gusts to 90 mph. When I saw the roof of my Florida room trying to lift off and heard branches falling from the pine trees and hitting the roof of of the trailer, BOY did I wish I'd gone somewhere else. We made it through with no damage, but the experience was harrowing.

I might (and I stress might) stay in the house for a tropical storm, but anything bigger and this mobile home is looter-bait. (Naturally, we take the really valuable stuff with us when we go.)

-Jet

[Swimdude]

I think the title says it all. If you're in any type of weather worth discussing, other than a beautiful sunset or something, you probably shouldn't be in a mobile home. So many people get killed each year that way.

[patsmsg]

Well...they are "mobile" homes, aren't they. You don't want to be in a mobile structure during any hurricane, you want to be in a high and dry sedentary structure.

[Petmom]

I was going to ask about mobile homes and trailer parks. It is not like I am telling people how to live or where to live. But why are there so many mobile homes here in Florida. Are they winter birds that have a second home up north? Even appartments would be better than mobile homes. And why didn't people learn after other hurricanes? Sometimes it can be scary in a regular home. IMO

[Persepone]

In an ideal world, we would all live in our own definition of a "palace." These palaces would all be structurally sound, in wonderful locations--but with all safety features in place, would always be in perfect repair, up to latest codes, etc. And they would all be "affordable." We'd all pay 25% of our income for housing and by some magic, our housing would be large enough, etc. and still meet all the criteria above.

I'm pretty sure that people live in mobile homes because that is what they can afford to live in &/or that is what they could afford to live in when they began to do so. Perhaps there are some who could afford something else--but probably they lived in their mobile home back when they could not afford some alternative and now, after many years, it is "home" and their neighbors are their friends, etc. So perhaps now they could afford something different, but it would mean "starting over" and making new friends, etc. and they don't want to do that. Which is understandable.

The solution is not outlawing mobile homes or replacing them with condos, etc. (which the former mobile home dwellers might not be able to afford) but making sure that they can ride out the storms in safety somewhere.