New Homes, Tiedowns Pass Test In Twister

Modern manufactured homes, built to HUD's stringent, far-reaching 1994 construction standards and sited under Florida's tough new (1999) installation requirements, performed very well in a tornado that struck A Garden Walk community August 7 in Palm Beach County.

Officially rated an F-1 (winds up to 115 mph) but which many feel was an F-2 (up to 160 mph), the twister tore a three mile path through an area of Riviera Beach and Lake Park, ripping roofs from site-built homes and a Pepsi plant, overturning heavy trucks and several railroad cars, heavily damaging an industrial park, and skipping through A Garden Walk manufactured home community. Governor Jeb Bush quickly declared the area to be in a "State of Emergency" and sent half a dozen State Emergency Response Teams.

Most importantly at the MH community, no deaths or serious injuries were reported, although a DMV inspection tallied "50 to 60" of the community's 450 homes as sustaining heavy damage. Of these, DMV reported that 9 or 10 were destroyed, including a singlewide that went "airborne" over two vehicles and onto the home next door.

Homes in the community range in age from new to about 30 years. Most of the damage to the "50-60" mentioned above was due to flying debris. All homes in the community have carport, shed, and screen rooms, and these contributed to a large part of the damage as they were ripped from their owners' homes and blown into other structures.

Despite winds strong enough to uproot a tree and destroy older homes nearby, this home built and installed to tough new codes received minimal damage during a recent tornado.

While older homes nearby were damaged or destroyed, this newer home sustained only minor cosmetic damage, and didn't move from its foundation.

Clearly evident, said the DMV inspector and FMHA's Bill Turney, who also checked out the damage, was the vast differences between the way homes were constructed and sited a generation ago and how they're built and installed today. Reported the DMV official: "The homes...were set up many years ago by installers who had been taught by their father or grandfather at a time when building departments thought a few piers and a few anchors under a 'trailer' home were sufficient...

"On the bright side, there were several new homes that were installed (in the path of the tornado) and these...had only minor skirting blown down."

He added that a new home across from lot 56 (the "airborne" singlewide) that had been installed just over a year ago had three blown out windows and had its screen porch destroyed; BUT, it hadn't budged on its foundation system! In fact, he

Some older homes, like this one, were completely destroyed in the tornado. Luckily, nobody was killed or seriously injured during the storm.

reported, "there was no severe damage to any of the new homes, and no new home moved on its foundation." And, on an exuberant note, he added: "We have come a long way!" A Garden Walk is locate in a HUD wind zone 3 area, meaning that the new homes that did so well in this twister were designed for winds up to 110 mph can be added to the growing list of testimonials to the windstorm safety of our homes built to the post Hurricane Andrew code and the state installation specs adopted in 1999. ................... Reprint with permission from the Florida Manufactured Housing Association.