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<\/p>\nWendy and Phil Durocher took their seats in a dim conference room in the annals of the Pinellas County courthouse and got ready to plead their case. They came armed with a binder of receipts, itemized spreadsheets and photographs of their storm-damaged mobile home, meticulously highlighted and annotated.<\/p>\n
After months of agonizing, a county magistrate would soon decide if the Durochers would be allowed to keep their Palm Harbor home, deemed \u201csubstantially damaged\u201d from flooding during Hurricane Helene.<\/p>\n
Unless the Durochers could prove the county\u2019s building department had miscalculated, their home would have to be torn down or elevated in keeping with Federal Emergency Management Agency rules.<\/p>\n
Following the 2024 hurricane season, more than 1,400 Pinellas County homes were flagged for storm damage that exceeded half the structure\u2019s value.<\/p>\n
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Eighteen months later,<\/a> some are still trying to save their homes. More than 200, including the Durochers, have taken their battle all the way to magistrate court. Nearly all were owners ofmobile homes, the Tampa Bay Times found,which make up the majority of the 1,400 affected residences. Many are seniors on fixed incomes who\u2019ve struggled to navigate the demanding, technical process.<\/p>\n While mobile homes have provided an affordable option for generations of retirees chasing the snowbird dream, they are more vulnerable to storm damage. In the face of worsening hurricanes, some fear strict FEMA guidelines could make this lifestyle a thing of the past.<\/p>\n Keven McAndrew, Pinellas County\u2019s director of building development and review, said mobile homes remain an important part of the local housing stock. Though the county is taking measures to help mobile home owners, he said,some of these properties just aren\u2019t safe from thisgrowing threat.<\/p>\n \u201cAs difficult as it may be to accept, in the end, there are going to be homes that are substantially damaged and have to be demolished or elevated or relocated,\u201d McAndrew said. \u201cThat is the way the program that FEMA set up was intended to work.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times interviewed over a dozen mobile home owners who said they thought they were allowed to start fixing their homes immediately following Helene. They didn\u2019t learn their homes weresubstantially damaged until months later, after many had spent thousands making repairs.<\/p>\n Several said their homes were flagged for damage that didn\u2019t exist, like ruined marble floors that were never there or countertops that were still usable. When they tried to get their status reversed, they said inconsistent instructions meanttheygot lost in the process.<\/p>\n More than 700 residents tried to save their homes by getting a reassessment from the building department. They submitted information to prove they had higher property values and lower repair costs than what was initially estimated. Nearly 430 homes were spared this way.<\/p>\n The rest would have to move forward with demolition or elevation. Or they could appeal through a county magistrate.<\/p>\n More than 80% of appeals came from mobile home owners, a Times analysis of court data found. Nearly a quarter came from Crystal Bay Mobile Home Club, the 55+ community nestled along Avery Bayou, where the Durochers live. The park has just over a hundred homes, and nearly all weresubstantially damaged after Helene\u2019s floods.<\/p>\n Saving her homeof four years became Wendy Durocher\u2019s full-time job. For months, she spent every free moment gathering evidence, calling and emailing county employees and scouring government websites for any clues that could demystify the rules.<\/p>\n Despite the hours she spent preparing for her hearing, Durocher said it was hard not to feel intimidated. She and several others compared the experience to a criminal trial where they were expected to prove their innocence.<\/p>\n A week before the hearing, the county increased the estimated cost of damage to her home from $42,716 to $50,639 without explanation.<\/p>\n There were obvious errors in the county\u2019s calculations, she said. They dinged her for subflooring that wasn\u2019t damaged, three interior doors that never existed and baseboards that the county had measured incorrectly.<\/p>\n When she pointed to theflaws, she was met with a barrage of questions from the floodplain administrator.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we have to tear down our home based on the FEMA rules, then follow the rules correctly,\u201d Durocher fired back.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is too serious of an issue to not get it right,\u201d the 64-year-old said.<\/p>\n Dorucher left without an answer. Instead, she was given 10 days to submit more evidence.<\/p>\n McAndrew said there is\u201cgreat sensitivity\u201d in the county\u2019s appeal process. Appeals are independent from the building department. Most petitioners were given more time to submit evidence following their first hearing.<\/p>\n Roughly a quarter of the 204 appeals filed were still in progress at the end of March, the Times found. Sixty-nine have been rejected. Another 43 people withdrew their appeals before a decision was reached.<\/p>\n Homeowners told the Times their appeals required an intense amount of research, accounting and technical knowledge.<\/p>\n The Durochers were among only 28 homeowners who succeeded in getting out of the\u201csubstantial damage\u201d bucket so far. The couple and their neighbors chalked it up to Wendy Durocher\u2019s sheer determination.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone doesn\u2019t have the same set of skills that (Wendy) has,\u201d Dave Oswald, another Crystal Bay resident said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey took a bunch of people like me \u2014 78, Vietnam vet, cancer survivor \u2014 and they pulled the rug out from under me,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want me to be an accountant, a contractor, a technician \u2026 all these things that I\u2019m not capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Oswald tracked down receipts for building materials he\u2019d purchased and paid for a private appraiser to re-assess his home\u2019s value. He said he got conflicting instructions from county staff about what evidence would be considered.<\/p>\n His appeal was denied.<\/p>\n Ray Bartolucci, 60, had a hearing in October for his home in Sea Horse Mobile Home Park, another 55+ waterfront community south of Seminole. Thirty-nine people there have submitted appeals.<\/p>\n Bartolucci said the county gave no guidance on how to prepare. He, too, had receipts for building materials he used and a private appraisal he paid for, but the county told him none of that would be considered.<\/p>\n At the hearing, he said it seemed like no one reviewed the evidence he submitted.<\/p>\n \u201cThey totally dismissed every line item I referenced, every figure that I referenced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He was given a week to gather more evidence. Around Christmas Eve, he got an email: Denied.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hurricane victims,\u201d he said. \u201cYou would think they\u2019d be wanting to help us. They\u2019ve taken the human element totally out of the picture and used FEMA as their crutch.\u201d<\/p>\n Bartolucci said he feels like he was punished for trying to be proactive. He rushed to meet the county\u2019s initial requirements, which stated homeowners must appeal within 60 days of receiving a substantial damage letter. Now, county officials say there is no hard deadline.<\/p>\n Some didn\u2019t even attempt to get out of substantial damage. They thought it was a lost cause.<\/p>\n Carol Westjohn, 68,said she didn\u2019t have the energy to restore her home in Crystal Bay after it sustained three feet of water. Even if she wanted to elevate, she wouldn\u2019t have been eligible for government grant programs<\/a> because she\u2019s not a Florida resident.<\/p>\n After pouring more than $70,000 into renovating her home over the years, she demolished it a little over a year after the storm, thinking she only had until June 1, 2025 to get it done.<\/p>\n She dipped into her retirement savings to buy a mobile homeat a different park in Dunedin. She still hasn\u2019t sold her lot at Crystal Bay \u2014 it\u2019s taken her months to find a buyer.<\/p>\n Now that the county has overturned some of her neighbors\u2019 substantial damage designations and given the rest until Dec. 31 to start demolishing or elevating, she can\u2019t help but wonder if she moved too quickly.<\/p>\n She tried to play by the rules, she said, \u201cbut the rules changed.\u201d<\/p>\n In the early days, the county did not do a great job of communicating what was expected of homeowners, said Amy Edwards, a permitting expert who started a company called Pinellas Permits to help people untangle the web of post-stormbureaucracy.<\/p>\n \u201cMany people, they did rush through the process,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they realized just how serious the magistrate\u2019s hearings are, considering their entire piece of real property is on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwards, who used to work for the county, said building officials there had never dealt with this level of destruction. Though it took time to work out the kinks, she said the process is now doing what it was designed to do: root out homes that are not storm-resilient.<\/p>\n McAndrew said the fallout hasn\u2019t come as a surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew from the outset that mobile homes were going to be the most significant challenge for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In Pinellas, most of these properties are at least 50 years old and are not designed to withstand hurricanes. They deteriorate faster than traditional homes and are worth less to begin with. This leaves mobile home owners with little wiggle room when trying to prove the cost of repairs adds up to less than half their property value, Edwards said.<\/p>\n If the county doesn\u2019t enforce substantial damage rules, it could lose out on benefits like FEMA disaster assistance and community-wide discounts through the National Flood Insurance Program.<\/p>\n Following Hurricane Ian, FEMA stripped tens of thousands of homeowners<\/a> in southwest Florida of their 25% flood insurance discounts once inspectors discovered that several towns and counties had not followed the rules. Some municipalities, including Fort Myers Beach, have since had their discounts reinstated, but only after it agreed to kick business owners and residents out of more than 200 compromised properties. <\/a><\/p>\n The goal, McAndrew said, is not to penalize homeowners but to prevent them from facing repeated devastation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is that you\u2019re protecting lives and property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n McAndrew said the county set up a walk-in \u201csupport hub\u201d for residents to get help through the reassessment process. Employees are being \u201cas helpful as we can,\u201d he said, to connect residents with grant opportunities and other assistance.<\/p>\n He said many homeowners submitted receipts that weren\u2019t itemized, or the wrong type of home appraisals, preventing the evidence from being considered.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of us have ever had to manage an event of this magnitude,” McAndrew said,\u201cthere\u2019s some really simple lessons learned that can be extremely valuable for all of our residents going forward. And there\u2019s going to be a very concerted educational campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s little consolation for retirees who worked their whole lives to afford a piece of Florida real estate.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are people with more years behind them than ahead of them,\u201d said Crystal Bay resident Dave Lundwall. He filed for an appeal with the magistrate early on, skipping the building department reassessment entirely.<\/p>\n His appeal was denied for lack of evidence, and he wasn\u2019t given an opportunity to submit more he said.<\/p>\n Lundwall,71, feels the process is inherently unfair for older residents. He wishes the rules wouldn\u2019t apply to 55+ communities, where most people live on fixed incomes and don\u2019t have the wherewithal to start over.<\/p>\n For many, these properties are second homes.<\/p>\n Oswaldhas been living part-time in Florida for 16 years, traveling from Michiganto beat the harsh winters. He and his wife loved the Crystal Bay community, with restaurants and shopping close by.<\/p>\n While they have a home up north, Oswald said they aren\u2019t in a position to buy another in Florida. The county\u2019s deadline will mark the end of their snowbird lifestyle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be devastating,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve made a number of wonderful friends we just love, and we\u2019re going to lose all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n For others, losing their mobile home means losing their only place to live.<\/p>\n Peter Richie, 82, has lived at Sea Horse full time since 2012. Since then, the disabled veteran\u2019s health has declined due to Parkinson\u2019s disease. He said his neighbors have always lenta hand, especially after Helene.<\/p>\n He is set to meet with the magistrate this month. If his appeal is denied, \u201cI\u2019ll be out on the street,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He can\u2019t afford the half a million dollars it would cost to elevate his home. Andselling vacant land likely won\u2019t leave him with enough money for a new place.<\/p>\n \u201cRents are high, places are expensive now,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere am I going to go?\u201d<\/p>\n A few Crystal Bay residents are awaiting the results of their appeal. Nearly half of those who filed have been denied. At Sea Horse, only one homeowner\u2019s appeal was successful.<\/p>\n Some have started making arrangements to leave. Others are waiting for the county to force them out.<\/p>\n Residents said the past year and a half has done irreparable damage to their tight-knit communities. Longtime neighbors have moved. Others have been paralyzed by stress. At least six homeowners across both parks died in the midst of fighting their substantial damage designations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had sleepless nights,\u201d said Sea Horse resident David Stephenson. \u201cAs a retired firefighter I\u2019ve been through hell, but never this hell.\u201d<\/p>\n For those who stand to lose their homes, the prospect of selling the entire park to a developer is appealing \u2014 a way to recover at least some of their lost investments. At Crystal Bay and Sea Horse, that would require a vote from the homeowners association. Owners remain split.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the mobile home parks that were flooded are prime real estate,\u201d Edwards said. If enough people there are deemed substantially damaged, \u201cthose parks are going to disappear off the map.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s already happened to Twin City Mobile Home Park near the Gandy Bridge. In 2024, Pinellas County told all 82 homeowners they\u2019d have to elevate or leave due to constant flooding. After months of back and forth, they were offered up to $40,000 each to relocate<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8e4cc23f8300fefa4c1dd6e934157b0a.jpeg\"\/)
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