The Punta Gorda woman had taken refuge in a dark closet, her only comforts her Bible, a rosary and the urn containing her husband's ashes.

As the wind grew stronger, Plummer, 64, questioned the wisdom of riding out a Category 4 hurricane in an aluminum and wood box tethered to the ground with straps.

The carport ripped off. Debris shattered windows and bashed in siding and doors.

``It was like Charley was methodically disassembling my home,'' Plummer said.

When the wind stopped, Plummer staggered outside and found her neighborhood in ruins. What that morning had been home was now an unrecognizable pile of junk.

Never again, Plummer thought, as she looked around. Never again would she stay in a mobile home during a hurricane.

Hurricane Charley, with its 145 mph winds, damaged or destroyed nearly every mobile home in Charlotte County. The Aug. 13 storm killed 33 people in Florida, including an older couple in their mobile home.

Plummer's choice of housing is as much a part of the Florida dream as swaying palm trees and white-sand beaches.

For generations, mobile home parks have dotted the state, providing seasonal visitors, retirees and low-income residents a relatively inexpensive place in the sun. Even those who can afford a more conventional home sometimes choose mobile home parks because they enjoy the sense of community they provide.

But, experts say, mobile- home dwellers pay the price when hurricanes howl. They pay with lost homes, lost possessions and lost lives.

No state has more mobile homes or more hurricane strikes than Florida. The two make for a dangerous mix. Even a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 74 to 95 mph, can rip apart a mobile home.

The state does not have rules to keep mobile homes from being placed in high- danger areas: hurricane wind and flood zones in coastal communities.

State records show thousands of the Tampa Bay area's mobile homes are in such zones.

Florida legislators are rarely motivated to work on measures to toughen standards for mobile-home manufacturers, and when they do, they face interfering federal standards and the industry's powerful lobby.

Consider this:

* The Tampa Bay area, where many of more than 3 million people are jammed along bays and beaches, has the heaviest concentration of mobile homes in the state, a review of mobile home licenses by The Tampa Tribune shows.

Polk County, crossed by three hurricanes in the just- ended season, has the highest number of mobile homes of any county in the state: 38,748. Pinellas County ranks second, with 35,544. Pasco County ranks fourth with 20,742; Hillsborough County is fifth with 20,726; and Manatee sixth with 18,805. Lee County is third with 26,802 mobile homes.

* About 85 percent of the mobile homes in the region were built before tougher U.S. Housing and Urban Development design standards inspired by Hurricane Andrew went into effect. Those regulations require that mobile homes sold in Florida after 1994 be able to withstand winds up to 110 mph, or a Category 2 hurricane.

State records show about one-third of these mobile homes were built before the first federal strength standards were implemented in 1976, making them less likely to withstand a storm.

* The registrations may not provide an accurate picture of the number of mobile homes and the risks they could present during hurricanes. Thousands of owners have not registered their mobile homes with the state as required by law. Though state records show about 400,000 mobile homes in Florida, more than in any other state, the U.S. Census pegs the number at more than double that, at 850,000.

Whatever the number, experts say the concentration of more vulnerable older mobile homes in Tampa Bay area coastal communities means damage could be catastrophic if a hurricane made a direct hit, as Charley was expected to do before it turned.

``If Hurricane Charley had hit you, you would have had a terrible disaster there,'' said Herb Saffir, who helped create the five-category hurricane wind scale used today.

So Many Mobile Homes

The Tampa Bay region is a patchwork of mobile home parks, many nestled by the water, such as the Sandpiper Mobile Resort on Anna Maria Island, where about 160 people live, or the Riviera Harbor Mobile Park, which sits on Old Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg.

Mobile homes account for about 12 percent of the state's housing stock, excluding apartments and condominiums.

In the Bay area's five counties - Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk and Manatee - state license registrations show there are 134,560 mobile homes.

With so many of the homes vulnerable because of less- stringent requirements when they were built, their presence would have implications for neighbors, taxpayers and public agencies in a major hurricane. Older homes are more likely to be destroyed and, in the process, damage other property. Siding, roofing and added elements such as carports can sheer off and smash structures blocks or even miles away. And the flying debris can kill.

The financial costs wouldn't be limited to those who live in mobile homes.

Taxpayers might have to pay at least part of the massive cleanup bill. Many mobile home owners have no insurance or don't carry enough to cover major losses.

One possible avenue for aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has made it clear it won't pay for mobile home park cleanup costs. Officials in Charlotte County learned that painful lesson after Charley.

It quickly became apparent many mobile home owners had let insurance lapse after the homes were paid off. Insurance experts say this is common, given the cost of mobile home policies. A hazard policy for a mobile home can cost 20 percent to 25 percent more than that for a traditional home of the same value.

Insurance experts estimate that 15 percent to 40 percent of mobile homes in Florida lack proper insurance.

Charlotte County officials expect to spend millions cleaning up the 12,000 mobile homes Charley destroyed or severely damaged.

Alan Holbach, the county maintenance and operations manager, estimated that mobile home and private road cleanup could cost county taxpayers as much as to $10 million, draining funds for other services such as police, mosquito control and road construction.

While county and federal officials argue over the cleanup bill - the county is urging FEMA to change its policy - the debris sits largely untouched.

The displaced residents have had to make do, finding housing with friends, family and in rental properties.

William Stander, regional manager for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, characterized the mobile home damage from Charley as shocking.

``We're seeing reports that more than 95 percent of the homes that were totally destroyed in DeSoto County were mobile homes,'' he said.

Hurricane experts are seeing big lessons for the Tampa Bay area.

``The devastation to mobile homes would be a huge, unimaginable mess in the Tampa Bay area,'' said Tim Reinhold, vice president of engineering at the Institute for Business and Home Safety, an insurance industry group based in Tampa.

Breaking Up Easy To Do

Strong hurricanes such as this season's Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne batter neighborhoods. They rip up full- grown trees, peel off roofs, and toss air conditioning units.

Such storms easily can uproot tie-down straps and turn over mobile homes. Others will break apart, leaving collages of rubble and ruined possessions.

The worst damage usually starts with the often-illegal and little-regulated carports, porches and other additions. Frequently poorly anchored, they can quickly rip off, creating holes in the roof or siding for wind to drive through. Roofs can pop off and the walls fall.

Mobile homes are doomed after a roof is seriously damaged because the walls generally are not designed to stand without a roof holding them in place.

``If you lose your roof or a wall, you are out of luck,'' said Bob Stroh, a professor at the University of Florida Rinker School of Building Construction and director of the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing. ``You're done.''

Several years ago, researchers from the International Hurricane Research Center in Miami visited eight mobile home parks in Miami-Dade County that together had 1,554 mobile homes. Of them, 1,436, or 92 percent, had unpermitted additions that could come off and weaken the rest of the structures.

Manufacturers' attempts to make their homes look more like site-built homes have made some vulnerable to high winds, Stroh and others said. For example, builders have added sloped roofs to disperse water and make them look traditional. But the design can act like an airplane wing. When wind gets under the overhang, it can snap connecting bolts ``and the roof just pops off,'' Stroh said.

The industry says the newer models are safer.

When the federal government toughened the wind- speed requirements, builders say, they added more steel to the structures and toughened connections for the floor, walls and roof.

Dennis Schrader, president of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association, said the 1994 standards do what they were designed to do.

He points to newer mobile home communities in Punta Gorda that sustained minimal damage from Charley as an example that the homes are safe and secure.

``The design standards work,'' said Schrader, who is also president of Jacobsen Homes, a Safety Harbor-based mobile home manufacturer.

A report in November from the Florida Bureau of Mobile Home and RV Construction, which surveyed hurricane damage to mobile homes in 14 counties, says mobile homes built after 1994 stood up fairly well, though some suffered serious damage.

Homes manufactured before 1994, however, were found to have sustained extensive damage. For instance, Charley destroyed 93 percent of the 140 mobile homes in Pine Acres mobile home park in Punta Gorda. Only seven of the homes in the park were built by 1994 standards.

The agency regulates mobile home construction and installation in Florida.

Even the newest mobile home is no place to stay in a storm, safety experts say. Their assessment: People are better off hunkering down in a ditch and covering their heads with their hands.

Engineers and government officials say they have not found practical ways to make older mobile homes more storm-secure.

Trying to retrofit mobile homes for greater structural integrity is a challenge, said Bruce Savage, spokesman for the Florida Manufactured Housing Association. In researching retrofitting, the agency found getting under a home to fix anchoring was hard because of added sun decks and carports.

Instead of pushing for new design standards or retrofitting programs, Florida officials have focused on evacuating mobile home residents.

They urge them to seek safety in the homes of friends, motels or county shelters during hurricanes.

With few exceptions, state officials say, public shelters were able to accommodate the residents who evacuated during the storms this season.

Hurricane experts and builders alike say mobile home residents shouldn't seek false safety in trying to retrofit their homes or in buying new ones. Instead, they should evacuate.

``After flying over the Charlotte County area after Hurricane Charley and seeing all the devastated mobile homes, I couldn't help but think of the people who would have been killed if they had not evacuated,'' said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center.

Government In Action

Despite the risks, mobile homes are such an important part of the state's housing stock that new legislative efforts to restrict or ban them in hurricane-prone areas are unlikely, some government officials say.

Others want the Florida Legislature to deal seriously with the risks by improving safety standards or restricting the mobile homes' placement in wind and flood zones.

``You've got a problem there, and the Legislature needs to be more proactive,'' Saffir said.

But there is no talk of legislation in the upcoming special session of the Legislature called to deal with hurricane- related issues, among other concerns.

However, Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings heads a hurricane housing committee looking for ways to create safer affordable housing. The committee is expected to make recommendations in mid-February.

A ban on mobile homes, even in high-risk areas, is rarely viewed as a viable option, despite the arguments it could potentially save lives and millions in taxpayer money.

State Rep. Ken Littlefield, R- Wesley Chapel, who represents parts of Pasco and Hillsborough counties, said such a ban wouldn't be fair because other homes or businesses are allowed in wind and flood zones.

Evacuating people from mobile homes and making sure there are enough shelters is an adequate safeguard, he said.

New Port Richey Councilman Tom Finn, also a Republican, takes another approach.

He said public officials should consider a mandate to remove mobile homes and redevelop the land, especially in flood zones near the coast and the Pithlachascotee River. In his city, he's trying to get public money set aside to buy mobile home parks and sell the property for redevelopment.

``People who live in mobile home parks in coastal areas are dinosaurs, and they are going to be phased out through regulations, insurance or something else,'' Finn said. ``The older [mobile homes] are time bombs.''

Redevelopment is frequently seen as the best and most reasonable solution to phase out older mobile homes.

Developers have gobbled up mobile home parks to build strip malls, office space and housing developments.

Wal-Mart on Tyrone Boulevard in Pinellas County is negotiating to buy Colony Mobile Home Park to expand its parking lot. Parsley's by the Gulf in Reddington Shores soon could be leveled to make way for a gated community.

But not all mobile home owners are willing to sell. In interviews, more than two dozen mobile home residents said they love their homes and don't want to sell or leave, despite the risks.

Ernest Antrobus, 69, who lives in a mobile home residential area in northwest Hillsborough County, loves mobile home life. He has lived there 30 years and can't fathom moving. ``This is home,'' he said.

The International Hurricane Research Center found that 74 percent of those surveyed said they would not be interested in a program that would offer a $5,000 rebate toward a mobile home built after 1994.

Asked what would get them to move out of their older mobile homes, respondents most often said ``nothing'' or ``death.''

State Rep. Frank Peterman Jr., a Democrat who represents parts of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota counties, said he was concerned that so little had been done since 1994 to improve mobile home safety, or at least to place them away from high- risk areas.

``We are potentially looking at a catastrophic problem and nothing is really being done,'' Peterman said.

He said mobile home safety was seldom discussed in the Legislature and that most lawmakers are unaware of the problem or not interested. He has no plans to bring forward new mobile home legislation unless there is a call to action from constituents.

In some ways, state legislators' hands are tied when it comes to writing new design standards. The federal government has traditionally held regulatory power over building and safety standards for mobile homes.

Some reluctance to respond to the vulnerability of mobile homes may have to do with the industry's lobbying.

Mobile homes generate about $6.6 billion a year in sales nationally.

In Florida, sales account for about $1 billion, and the industry employs thousands.

The industry has kept up a steady lobbying effort to fight tougher standards since the changes of 1994.

The Manufactured Housing Institute, a trade group, is opposing proposals from the National Fire Protection Agency to beef up the design, construction and installation standards of mobile homes.

The industry blocked a move by state officials toward stronger design standards after a tornado killed 39 Central Florida mobile home residents in 1998.

The industry argued that mobile homes shouldn't be singled out because no homes are safe in a major tornado.

A show of the industry's power occurred in 1994 after Congress formed the National Commission of Manufactured Housing to draft legislation to improve mobile home construction standards and create federal warranty requirements. The commission, which included representatives from the mobile home industry, came up with a plan that would have required manufacturers to provide five- year warranties for mobile homes.

In theory, the warranties would result in manufacturers making the homes safer.

When the proposal went to Congress, manufacturers successfully lobbied to kill it.

Robert Wilden, a former Housing and Urban Development official, said in a report on the commission's work that the only real hope for reform is to allow states to enforce their own building codes, as they do for site-built homes.

Mobile home residents such as Antrobus say they will let politicians and hurricane experts figure it out.

``If the big one comes, no one will be safe,'' Antrobus said as he sipped a beer and cooked a turkey breast on the grill outside his home. ``When your time's up, your time's up.''

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668.