Quake Aftershocks on the Home Front : Mobile homes: Gov. Wilson is considering legislation that would require the structures to be bolted to the ground.

Six months after the Northridge earthquake bounced thousands of mobile homes from their foundations, Gov. Pete Wilson is considering a bill passed by the Legislature which would require the structures to be bolted to the ground for safety.

Long opposed by owners, the measure reflects a broad new consensus inspired by the extraordinary toll the quake inflicted on mobile homes.

“Everyone was shaken out of their traditional positions,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who co-authored the bill. “So many mobile homes fell, everyone recognized the problem. All it took was a 6.8-magnitude earthquake.”

Within seconds on the morning of Jan. 17, more than 10% of the 51,062 mobile homes in Los Angeles County parks were rendered uninhabitable.

Most of those were shifted or flung completely from their supports. Another 184 burned to the ground in fires fueled by ruptured gas lines, one of which killed a 92-year-old Chatsworth woman.

Six months later, more than 1,700 of the severely damaged mobile homes are still considered uninhabitable, said John Frith, spokesman for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the agency responsible for safety inspections of mobile homes.

Many mobile home owners and tenants who were either uninsured or too frightened to return have abandoned their dwellings for other types of housing, Frith said.

Top O’ Topanga Mobile Home Park resident James Britton was one of the lucky ones. His insurance paid for about $30,000 worth of repairs to the home where he lives with his wife and three children.

Even so, the Britton family lived part time with friends in Culver City until late May, when most of the major work was complete. Many smaller repair jobs remain unfinished.

“Everything is changed up here,” Britton said. “It’s been complete turmoil. And there are a lot of empty spaces where neighbors once lived.”

State officials, manufacturers and mobile home owners hope required anchoring of mobile homes to cement moorings will help prevent such widespread damage in case of another quake of such force.

Tie-downs are required on mobile homes in more than half the states nationwide, including wide regions in the windy Midwest and South.

“In the opinion of most engineers, tie-downs help keep houses from going sideways,” said Jess Maxcy, president of the California Manufactured Housing Institute, an industry group. “We didn’t realize we needed that. We’ve been through many earthquakes, but never like the one in Northridge, where everything went up and down and sideways all at once.”

If Wilson signs the legislation, anchoring devices will be required within 60 days on all manufactured homes. There are many varieties, some costing as little as $600, Maxcy said.

As approved by the state Assembly on July 9, the measure--part of a stampede of safety-related legislation proposed after the Jan. 17 earthquake--would require tie-downs for both new and retrofitted mobile homes.

Wilson was studying the bill over the weekend, an aide said.

Mobile home owners had opposed mandatory bracing or tie-downs proposed by Frith’s agency for years because of the costs involved. Manufacturers also had been cool to the idea.

In the meantime, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Emergency Services have begun installing steel, sawhorse-style seismic bracing, which costs between $2,500 and $3,000 per home, on earthquake-damaged mobile homes, free of charge.

OES technical adviser Rick Ranous said the more expensive type of restraint was chosen because FEMA and OES officials believed they work better during an earthquake. No comprehensive comparison between the tie-down and seismic bracing systems has been done.

The profusion of more than a dozen types of anchoring systems on the market might also be confusing to mobile home residents if the pending bill is signed, said Dave Hennessy, president of the Golden State Mobilehome Owners League.

The Department of Housing and Community Development would issue guidelines for tie-down devices, Frith said. Hennessy, however, said he would continue to ask the department to recommend specific models to consumers, to help avoid confusion.

“If they’re going to require us to install these systems, they should give us something to go by,” Hennessy said. “The bill was a rush job. But I think everyone felt the same way: We had to do something.”