Last of Irma-damaged homes removed at Marathon’s Trailer Ranch

An excavator bucket came crashing down on one of the last standing — yet already destroyed — mobile homes in Trailer Ranch by the Sea Thursday.

It was a sign of how Hurricane Irma changed it and other eclectic Florida Keys mobile-home communities forever.

Most of the 44 homes that once stood in the mile marker 50.5 oceanside Trailer Ranch by the Sea park in Marathon were destroyed in the Sept. 10 storm. Grubbs Emergency Services crews, which handle the city’s disaster response services, have been helping clear the property of tons of debris.

“It’s 200 or 300 yards to get back to that property and was hard for them to get their stuff out to the road,” said city Planner Director George Garrett.

Still, there are several units whose owners feel they can be saved, he said.

“I don’t know what will happen. I’m going to say they’ll rebuild,” Garrett said, adding the trailers are separately owned but the park is collectively owned.

This story was originally published November 10, 2017 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Last of Irma-damaged homes removed at Marathon’s Trailer Ranch."