MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — In Manatee County, mobile home park residents are among those who were hardest hit by Hurricane Milton.
Manatee County’s Community Health Team held a pop-up clinic in Trailer Estates offering wellness visits, first aid, health screenings, medical and social referrals, and local support and information for residents.
“When it rains, it pours,” Trailer Estates resident Robin Finucan said.
Resident Robin Finucan said she felt fortunate that the water did not reach her home during Hurricane Helene.
“But here comes the second one, and I lose my roof,” she said on Monday.
Finucan evacuated for Hurricane Milton and came home to find her roof peeled back. On Monday afternoon, she was one of the more than 29,000 residents in Manatee County who still didn’t have power.
“Last one of my friends got power over on the other side of the park, and so they invited me to come spend the night to stay in air-conditioning and warm food,” she said.
Significant damage is evident to homes throughout the large fifty-five-plus mobile home park. It was at the pool where Finucan met two men who were helping residents with cleanup, and she was overwhelmed with gratitude when they showed up at her home Monday morning and put up plywood and a tarp Finucan’s home.
“They were an answer to a prayer,” Finucan said.
Like many in the 55-plus mobile home park, Finucan doesn’t have insurance because it was too expensive for too little coverage. Friends used to call Finucan’s home, “her Barbie Dreamhouse” but now she calls it her “Barbie nightmare house.”
But despite it all, she was still smiling on Monday.
“Everybody’s pulling together. That’s what brought me to this community.”
The county will be hosting pop-up clinics after various mobile home parks throughout the county all week long from 9 a.m. to noon at the following locations:
- Oct. 14: Trailer Estates,1903 69th Av. W. Bradenton
- Oct. 15: Shadow Brook, 3820 63rd St. E., Palmetto
- Oct. 16: Coach House Mobile Home Park, 3004 49th St. E., Palmetto
- Oct. 17: Terra Siesta Co-Op, 3502 Patricia Place, Ellenton
- Oct. 18: Colony Cove, 101 Amsterdam Ave., Ellenton
- Oct. 19: North River Estates, 7001 36th St. E., Ellenton
- Oct. 20: Sun Key Village, 2601 86th St. E., Palmetto
With thousands still without power in South Florida, TECO is continuing to work day and night on getting the lights back on. "We know how frustrating it is, how inconvenient it is not to have power, and so the team is really committed to the cause," says CEO Archie Collins.
