Manufactured housing and the 2004 hurricane season: Assessing the effectiveness of hazard mitigation

Authors

  • Kevin R. Grosskopf, PhD, CEM

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.2005.0049

Keywords:

hazard mitigation, hurricanes, building codes and standards, manufactured housing, under-represented populations

Abstract

The vast majority of some 22-million manufactured housing residents in the United States are ethnic, elderly, low-income populations. As the fourth most populous and second fastest growing US state, Florida is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of manufactured homes in one of its most geographically vulnerable regions. After-action reports from Hurricanes Charley, Jeanne, Frances, and Ivan indicate that all manufactured housing units constructed after the 1994 Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standard survived intact, whereas units constructed before 1994 suffered damage ranging from severe to catastrophic. This paper provides manufactured housing damage-assessment data from 60 of 67 Florida counties affected by the 2004 hurricane season according to various federal and state hazard mitigation strategies implemented from 1976 to 1999.

Author Biography

Kevin R. Grosskopf, PhD, CEM

M. E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

References

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Bureau of Mobile Home and RV Construction, Division of Motor Vehicles, Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles: Mobile home damage assessments from Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. Tallahasseee, FL: DHSMV, 2004.

Infoplease: US hurricanes. Available at www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001443.html. Accessed January 10, 2005.

Florida State University EXPLORES! Program: 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Available at www.met.fsu.edu/explores/tropical.html. Accessed February 2, 2005.

Williams F: Report on the 2004 hurricane season. Florida Manufactured Housing Association (FMHA), Hurricane Housing Working Group, Office of the Governor, Tallahassee, Florida, 2004.

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Stroh R, Smith M: Manufactured housing and hurricanes. Affordable Housing Issues Newsletter. 2004; 16(6). The Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

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Downloads

Published

09/01/2005

How to Cite

Grosskopf, PhD, CEM, K. R. “Manufactured Housing and the 2004 Hurricane Season: Assessing the Effectiveness of Hazard Mitigation”. Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 3, no. 5, Sept. 2005, pp. 27-32, doi:10.5055/jem.2005.0049.