Performance of Manufactured Housing during Hurricanes Irma and Michael
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 4
Abstract
Manufactured homes historically have been some of the most vulnerable structures to earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. More than 20 million people reside in manufactured homes in the US, leaving many at considerable risk across the country. Approximately 10% of the nation’s manufactured home stock is in Florida, where they were subjected to 2 consecutive years of intense hurricanes, including 2017 Hurricane Irma and 2018 Hurricane Michael. This paper presents posthurricane imagery and damage assessment of 279 manufactured homes assessed after each of these hurricanes in Florida. Predicted and mapped peak and sustained wind speed data were coupled with public database information of manufactured homes and parks in order to identify site locations with particular ranges of wind speeds in the impacted areas. Damage observations at the component- and system-level were presented based on post-Michael reconnaissance imagery. It generally was observed that manufactured home performance was consistent with historical observations, including 20% of surveyed homes classified as completely destroyed. These findings are intended to highlight the physical vulnerabilities of manufactured housing and to provide impetus for further research and updated standards for safer, affordable housing.
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Data Availability Statement
The data sets of wind damage ratings and photographs of manufactured homes following Hurricane Michael used for this study are available in the DesignSafe-CI data repository at https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-85fv-n684. Photographs of damaged manufactured homes following Hurricane Irma used for this study are available in the DesignSafe-CI data repository at http://doi:10.17603/DS2TX0C.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge Hamed Moftakhari at the University of Alabama who helped with the post-Hurricane Michael data collection. Additionally, the authors acknowledge University of Kansas undergraduate students Michael Smith, Miguel Cubero, and Mahmoud Abdulwahed for cleaning the Hurricane Michael data and collecting the secondary data. The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation (CMMI Award No. 1903486) that supported the data collection after Hurricane Michael. The data collection after Hurricane Irma also was sponsored by the NSF (CMMI Award No. 1761461), although not for the authors. These data were made available to the authors, who are grateful for the initial sponsorship, data collection efforts, and data sharing. The views expressed are those of the authors, and may not represent the official position of the National Science Foundation.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 4 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 7, 2019
Accepted: Mar 10, 2020
Published online: May 31, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2020
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