Damage investigation of manufactured homes in hurricane charley

A research team consisting of two engineering students from Texas Tech University was deployed to Florida in order to assess damage done by hurricane Charley to manufactured homes. The focus of the team was to document damage inflicted upon manufactured homes that were built after the revision of the HUD wind load code. Damage to the manufactured homes is primarily presented through photographs with succinct commentary. According to our observations, the post-94 manufactured homes performed much better than pre-94 manufactured homes in Hurricane Charley. Many pre-94 manufactured homes sustained damage varying from very severe to total destruction of the home, while the post-94 manufactured homes did not sustain structural damage; it was limited to the peeling of siding and damage from flying debris. One other observation of significance is the performance of tie-down system. Almost all the tie-down systems performed satisfactorily.