This is a picture of the Feb. 2, 2007 tornado rich weather pattern crossing Lake County.
The Orlando Sentinel just published an article about the weaknesses of mobile and manufactured homes during tornado or hurricane seasons HERE. I just happen to have researched that issue two years ago, after the Leesburg & Eusits tornado, when I was planning to purchase a remodeling franchise. Below (click the link) are my comments, as posted on the Sentinel's website, and then expanded (click link below to see them) plus several pictures:
One problem is that local government building inspection departments do not provide any decent guides to upgrading mobile home tie down systems, and they don't recommend them during building permit inpsections. About 2 years ago, Builder magazine published a comprehensive article on the reasons for tornado damage, including mobile and manufactured homes. Just after the Eustis and Lady Lake tornadoes in Lake County, I visited one of the damaged mobile home parks in Leesburg and looked at the separation points where tie downs or posts failed. There was a building inspector there from the Lake County building department to advise homeowners on how to ensure they only used licensed contractors. Since tie down standards have changed over the years, I asked if the building inspectors recommended better systems when they issued permits, and she said "no", that they relied on the technology used at the time of the home manufacture.
That seems a poor policy.
The building departments in cities and the County should
1) provide a comprehensive guide on how to improve tornado resistance for all homes, both hard constructed, plus mobile and manufactured homes, and
2) after each tornado or hurricane, take pictures and write assessment reports on the County website of reasons for failures, so the public can educate themselves, and
3) develop tornado resistance upgrade policies and include them as conditions for future building permits, much like required upgrades for smoke detectors and electrical wiring upgrades.
I am running for Lake County Commissioner, and when elected, will work to ensure that those actions are implemented to improve the tornado survival rate of local homes. In some cases, I think the tornado resistance upgrades for the older homes should be mandatory before getting a building permit for any modifications to the home.
Vance Jochim - Candidate for County Commissioner District 4
PS: From memory, here are some of the weaknesses in older homes described in the Builder magazine article:
For mobile and manufactured homes:
- Many installations were not done properly. Tie down straps were not at the proper spacing, and fewer straps were used than required by the manufacturer.
- Tie down straps will fail if improperly looped over the beams under the house. They are supposed to have a bracket under them to prevent bending, kinking and snapping under stress.
- Newer standards have more tie down straps, and other techniques that could be retro-fitted to older homes.
- Tie down bolts for posts holding carports were too small or missing, causing the post to fail, allowing the carports to be blown away from the house. There were a number of these situations I observed in Leesburg.
- Many manufactured homes had window awning systems, and some had weak brackets and hold down screws which failed, causing the awning to fly loose. The same for the trim that runs around the edge of the roofs (not too many with that problem, but some failed).
I have pictures of what I saw.
For hard constructed homes (usually block construction):
- Homes with garages have a major weakness. Over 1200 homes were damaged in the Villages and many because they had garage doors that did not have internal braces, so high winds caused the door to blow into the home, then the wind popped the garage roof and then blew the rest of the roof off. This is a major weakness in older homes, and should be a required retrofit.
Here are some pictures of the December 2006 Tornado damage in a mobile home park in Leesburg:
An example of a non-reinforced garage door that blew in.
Example of manufactured home that shifted on foundation because tie downs were not strong enough.
This tie down strap is installed improperly - it should have a curved bracket under it to prevent the strap from kinking and breaking. Notice how it would not take much movement to fall off the supporting cinder blocks.
Example of poor bracket for awning, which could have let the awning break loose and damage other property.
Example of all the material blown away from front and back screen rooms of this home that were not bolted down well enough. All this material could have damaged other property when flying around. It also ripped part of the main house's roof away.
This is all that remains of a screen room that was not bolted down strongly enough.
Most homes in this tract survived ok except for carports, awnings and screen rooms that were not bolted down strongly enough.