Florida Keys mobile homes disappear after Hurricane Irma; some were spared

ISLAMORADA — Bill Quinn grabbed the essentials: a guitar, a keyboard, family photos and artwork, pottery pieces. He thought once Hurricane Irma was done wreaking havoc he still would play the drum set he left in his waterfront mobile home. 

The drum set disappeared. So did most of Quinn's home, its frame blown apart, leaving only a blue concrete pad. His bathroom sink sat on the side of U.S. 1 on a pile of seaweed and rubble. His boat engine remained tied up to a docking station behind what was once his trailer. Its frame landed in someone else's yard, he said. 

As Quinn, a carpenter, stood on the blue concrete pad, he described what his home used to look like.

"That was my living room," Quinn, 48, said pointing to a corner. "This was my kitchen."

Florida Keys residents were allowed to return home Tuesday after evacuating, but the Lower Keys were still out of reach for some residents. Wednesday was the first day back to some. They had to clear checkpoints, where they had to show proof of residency.

Quinn's Sea Breeze RV & Mobile Home Park exemplifies Irma's wrath. Many of the mobile homes next to his disappeared, cast away by Category 4 winds, or reduced to wreckage. Residents gathered what was left Wednesday. 

Others communities fared better, dealing mostly with fallen trees, debris, loss of phone service and power outages.

Picking up the pieces

Quinn sheltered in a hurricane-proof room in an adjacent concrete home. He said he didn't expect to see this much damage at Sea Breeze. Many trailers were so devastated they can't be repaired. 

Tom Haddican, 67, lost two mobile homes and estimated his losses will total about $100,000. Irma tossed one of them about 60 feet before it landed in the middle of a road. Its walls, furniture and cabinets are mostly destroyed. He and wife Beverly recovered fishing poles, towels that were still dry in a cabinet and a ceramic toddler cup he used as a baby.

"We're finding stuff here and there," Haddican said.

As he assessed the damage to his trailer, Haddican looked down at a wet copy of the book "Beach Road" by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge lying on the pavement.

"Oh man, that was autographed," he said. 

The ride back home

Islande Dillon left a friend's house in the Fort Lauderdale area Wednesday morning to see her Key Largo home for the first time since she evacuated Thursday. She heard from neighbors the ride back home is emotional.

At 11:49 a.m. she parked her car in front of the two-story concrete house. As she looked at the backyard there were fallen trees, debris and a patio table was hurled against her back metal fence.

A tree on the other side of the fence was uprooted. Yet the dried coconuts her 6-year-old son uses as eggs in a Velociraptor nest when he plays Jurassic Park were left intact.

"Your coconuts didn't move," Dillon said to son James Wegie.

Dillon felt lucky as she unlocked her accordion shutters and ventured inside. There was no water or structural damage. Her furniture was untouched. The chicken she left in the freezer still was cold after thawing when she lost power. She planned to bring it back to her friend's home, where she will stay until power is restored. 

"I'm very thankful to survive Irma in the fashion we did," Dillon, 36, said.

Keys still "special"

The prospect of another hurricane doesn't change how Dillon and mobile home park residents feel about the Florida Keys. It's a price they pay for living in paradise.

"When this doesn't happen, we like to fish. Our friends are down here," Haddican said as he looked at what's left of his Islamorada home. "There's something special about the Keys."