The living room was open to the blue sky. Three rattan chairs, a black rubber boot and a picnic basket sat on the soaked carpet.
"This is home," Maria Yetman said. "Welcome to our home. Welcome to Florida."
Yetman, 56, and Roy Bilhardt returned home Saturday to find their mobile home in the Palmetto park in Port Charlotte in ruins, like hundreds - perhaps thousands - of mobile homes across southwest Florida.
Higher building standards for new mobile homes were put in place a decade ago following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew. Construction materials had to be able to withstand 100- to 110-mph winds; the fasteners that attach roofs, walls and floors had to be stronger; and, for the first time, the tie-downs that latch the homes to the ground were regulated.
But even those standards probably would not have been enough for mobile homes to stand up to Charley, a Category 4 hurricane with winds of more than 145 mph.
"Trailer parks, not many of them had a chance," said Guy Tunnell, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, after flying over the area. "Some of them were still standing, but a lot of them were were nothing more than twisted metal and insulation."
More than 150,000 of Florida's 550,000 mobile homes are in the 10-county area that Charley cut through. Many of them are older homes. In Charlotte County, for instance, all 31 mobile home parks - some with more than 1,000 units - sustained significant damage.
"I feel like the angel of doom today," said Janice Helms, the manager of the city-owned Fort Meade Mobile Home Park in Polk County. "I've had to call everybody with bad news."
Helms estimates that 200 of the 241 mobile homes in the park were damaged by the hurricane. Two adjacent mobile home parks, which contained another several hundred homes, also suffered heavy damage.
State officials say it's unclear how many mobile home residents who were told to evacuate Thursday - a full 24 hours in advance - chose to stay put. On Saturday, firefighters and rescue workers went home by home through parks, looking for survivors.
Gary Snyder, 56, who said he had nowhere to go, rode out the storm in his Port Charlotte mobile home. He stretched out on the floor under a mattress. He could hear the metal walls rocking and debris flying outside. "It was a rough ride," he said.
Snyder wasn't injured, but his home was heavily damaged. Many mobile homes around him were crumpled hunks of metal.
Chuck Smith, assistant bureau chief of mobile home construction for the state of Florida, said during a strong storm, the windows of a wood frame mobile home will likely shatter first. Then, the wind pressure will probably cause the roof to blow off, and later, the walls to come down because the fasteners are exposed.
A team of state inspectors was dispatched to southwest Florida to assess the damage to mobile homes.
Gov. Jeb Bush, who lived through Hurricane Andrew in South Florida, said he thought the state's new regulations had helped.
"There were some parks that looked like they had significantly less damage, which leads me to believe that the higher standards are working," he said after an aerial tour.
Dan Strong, 51, returned to his home in Biehl's Slip-Not Mobile Home Park in Punta Gorda to find it destroyed.
"Everything is gone," Strong said as he dug through the rubble trying to salvage photographs, clothes, some paintings and a stereo system he hoped would still work.
He picked through broken tables and chairs, a tipped over stove, and a soaking wet sofas.
"What I really need is a big broom," Strong said.
Bob and Connie Maus of Punta Gorda considered themselves lucky.
Connie Maus started crying when she discovered the first five homes were destroyed in the Windmill Village Trailer Park, where they live.
Then the couple, married 43 years, reached their mobile home. The windows were blow out, the roof had caved in.
"We are alive," Connie Maus said. "We got stuff we can salvage. It's not like other people."
The retirees said they don't expect to move back in for at least a month. But they're thankful that they survived Charley relatively unscathed.
"Compared to some, we are blessed," Bob Maus said.
Times staff writers Joni James, Tamara Lush, Leonora LaPeter, Ron Matus, Leanora Minai and Lucy Morgan and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
