Bad News from Punta Gorda FL

Always...the frame stays on the ground and everything inside gets spread around the neighborhood

Ah, how horrible.

It's simply because any manufactured 'home' is built light-weight for transport. You can put all the steel-strappings you want on it, but the essential core will still fly away in strong winds. I guess that's always why they worried me. They make some gorgeous ones now, but I'd prefer a stick-built anyday--even my aging fixer-upper.

I'm still wondering about some kind of bolting modification, say with big steel bands or some kind of steel beam framing at the site the home is positioned on. I know it's more money and labor, I am just thinking in concept.
There are a lot of efforts being made to develop transportable housing now, past the usual mobile home "coaches". I just looked one up in my files, but that particular one would be even worse for wind, or to ward off flying objects.

I saw in an article in the Washington Post about regular building roofs flying off with Charlie, what amazing force.

There have been remarkable reforms in engineering the building of homes but no home will ever be safe in a category 4 hurricane except a concrete box.

Hurrican season sounds really tough..

panzade- My house is made from cement cell blocks. Problem is, before they changed the law. the roofs were attached with staples. They rust, cause holes, and the roofs spring leaks. The new roofs have to be held down by nails.

I would have hated to see roofs flying all over my area. I think that I really lucked out!

Has anyone heard about how Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda came through this?

Phoenix, nails are better and they inspect them better, but the real breakthrough is in the tie-down requirements...where the trusses meet the tie-beam or block wall. You won't find as many roofs sailing away like a paraglider.

Yeh, that's what I was talking about, in part, was there a way to adapt that methodology to mobile homes, even envisioning some giant steel tie connectors from roof to ground level concrete footings. I guess the mobiles are just too flimsy, or lightweight anyway..

What does in many of these mobil homes is the pressure differential during the storm. Sever gusts are often followed by steep drop in air pressure. You get a number of these and the structure is weakened until a gust blows it a part.

Ah, I get it. Wow. I had been wondering too about the shear factor, that they might not be sturdy enough to withstand shear forces.

Yesterday. I went to see my son and his gf. They were in West Palm, which is 4 hours away from me. We decided to meet in the middle, in Lake Placid.

Link

(Zoom out one notch, and you can see where Arcadia is in relation to Punta Gorda.)

Anyhow, for some reason I thought that I would be driving north of the problem, but was I wrong. Halfway through the trip, going along Route 70, I passed Arcadia. It was a MESS. There was glass all over the place, no lights, and electric poles were perched at strange angles. Some of them were on the ground.

In a shopping center, there was a truck where someone was handing out bags of ice. Trees were all over the place. Arcadia is kind of rural, so I only saw a few houses, in various levels of disrepair.

When I finally got to Lake Placid, most of the town did not have lights. Some gas stations did not have electricity. The ones that did, had lines around the block, looking like the gas shortage of the 1970s.

The supermarkets were open, but there was no dairy products for sale. Cell phone service was either non-existent or spotty. It was really a horrible sight, and the temperature yesterday was 93 degrees!

How are your son and his girlfriend doing?

Eva- They are back in West Palm, where there was no problem, and doing fine, thanks. Keep your fingers crossed. I think that he's finally found someone wonderful!

I've heard the deathtoll is now 19.

That's right, still many missing and around 500,000 without electricity.

And approximately 10,000 people homeless, according to our local newspaper.

The Attorney General, Charley Crist is going after the price gaugers. I heard a story on the radio about an elderly couple who wanted a tree removed from the roof of their home. The job was worth 500-700 dollars. The company charged $11,000.

Another story was where a woman and her two kids went to a motel that had a sign, $39.95. The owner wanted $110- When she didn't have it, the owner threw her and her two kids out.
Also, people were warned about people who come around offering to help with something, take your money, and just leave. The vultures are out in force.

There is a law in Florida, that during an emergency, it is illegal to inflate prices.

How very sad Phoenix!

I've also heard a lot of uplifting, neighbor-to-neighbor good deeds, good Samaritans around, and that makes me feel all is not lost.

Glad to see you are okay Phoenix ... no damage?