Reinforcing Hurricane Safety

ZEPHYRHILLS - The Shady Oaks Mobile Home Park has survived many a hurricane, but the residents aren't taking any chances.

The day after Christmas, crews began bolstering the community's aging mobile homes to help them endure future storms.

The $750,000 project was paid for by a federal grant administered by Tallahassee Community College.

The grant is part of a $15 million state program aimed at strengthening the state's mobile homes against storms. That money, in turn, was derived from 2006's $250 million My Safe Florida Home program, which was set up to strengthen site-built houses across the state.

In Shady Oaks, about 90 percent of the park's 214 owners accepted the $3,500 per home grant, said Cliff Piper, treasurer for the resident-owned park.

Joe Cheney was one of the first homeowners in Shady Oaks, off State Road 39, to get the upgrades.

Cheney looked on Thursday morning as workers installed heavy-gauge aluminum bracing along the underside of his carport roof and used similar material to tie the roof to the carport's concrete slab.

Cheney's 1971-vintage mobile home was built before many of the improvements that help modern mobile homes withstand storms.

Cheney, a widower who moved to Shady Oaks in 1991, welcomed the improvements in hopes that they'll lower his insurance rates.

Crews with Stuart-based Treasure Coast Exteriors will work in Shady Oaks through mid-January. The company's crews have done similar work in mobile home parks in Holiday and New Port Richey.

The crews working in Shady Oaks put most of their energy into the homes' carports - notorious for peeling away during large storms.

A state study following the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 spotlighted carports as the cause of storm-related damage that punctured mobile homes, letting in the winds that then blew the homes to pieces, said Nancy Stewart, legislative representative for the state Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida.

"We're fixing the things that they said caused the problems," Stewart said of the study by the Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles. The department regulates mobile homes.

Piper said he encouraged Shady Oaks officials to apply for the grant last year. Because state officials had more applicants than they had funds, Shady Oaks had to wait until this year to get its share.

When the program began, nearly 100,000 people sought the money, Stewart said. Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the funding this year, but it was reinstated by the Legislature thanks, in part, to work by state Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

"This is about how far you can stretch the dollar," Stewart said.