One of the prevailing conceits of developers seeking to build RV parks in flood plains or in coastal areas subject to storm surges is that their customer base is mobile. Got a storm coming your way? No problem! Just disconnect the utilities, hook up the hitch and you’re on your way!
That kind of breezy dismissal of perfectly sane objections to putting people in harm’s way is self-serving, of course, but it’s also oblivious to human nature. There’s the problem of narrow roads creating bottlenecks when masses of people suddenly try to evacuate an area with few alternative routes. There’s the human tendency of refusing to believe until the last minute that there’s actually a problem, contributing to the mass rush for the exits just mentioned. And, of course, there’s the inevitable casualty list of those who never do get in motion—until elemental forces take care of that oversight.
The trailer pictured above is one of five that got flipped earlier today by the winds kicked up by a relatively mild Hurricane Debby. What’s noteworthy is that this RV is in Sonrise Palms RV Park, which is in Brevard County—120 miles from where Debby made landfall, across the full width of the Florida peninsula. The owner of this particular trailer wasn’t home at the time, but the occupants of several of the other RVs in his park weren’t as lucky, with one ending up in the hospital.
Debby is plowing northward, its winds diminishing but its rain reaching double digits as it hits the low, flat coastal plains of Georgia and the Carolinas. There will be more devastation in the days ahead, but none as severe—and avoidable—as the destruction wreaked on RV parks and campgrounds. And in all too many cases, having a set of wheels won’t make one bit of difference.
Renting Dirt 