Mobile Home Residents Will Ride It Out In Ledyard

Howard and Claire Cook were out on their front porch at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, enjoying a warm summer evening at the mobile home park off Avery Hill Road. The sight of the couple sitting calmly on their front porch belied the dramatic images that have been flashing across TV screens for the past week.

Were they concerned that Hurricane Irene would be upon us in a few hours?

“Not at all,” said Howard Cook. “We’re New Englanders.”

The Cooks, who live at the end of Marlene Drive, had no interest in moving to an emergency shelter at Fitch Senior High School in Groton. They said they had another option to remaining in their mobile home. “We have place in Westerly, near the water,” Cook said.

But they felt it would be safer to ride out the storm in the hills of Ledyard.

Most of their neighbors apparently felt the same way.  Nearly all of the homes in the neighborhood were occupied, even though mobile homes can be vulnerable in hurricane-force winds.

Ledyard Fire Chief Steve Daggett said emergency personnel visited the park this week to brief residents on storm safety and to help them prepare. He was not surprised most residents were choosing to ride it out.

"It's their homes," he said. "Naturally they would want to stay and protect their homes."

“We’re a pretty close neighborhood,” Cook said. “We tend to look out for one another,” although he said he was concerned about some of the older residents.

Dorothy Banner, 83, was among the two-dozen or so people who had made their way to the shelter at Fitch. Banner lives at the Long Cove Mobile Home Park in Groton.

But at 8 p.m. Saturday only two people at the shelter said they were from Ledyard – a woman who declined to give her name, and her son. The woman said she came to the shelter because she was concerned about trees in her yard.

She also said she was told by Groton Police that she could bring snacks, but that food would be provided at the shelter. When she arrived, she learned that the shelter had only snacks.

“My son is diabetic,” she said. “He can’t just eat snacks.”

The people at the shelter were in luck, however. Dinner soon arrived – pulled pork and rolls to make sandwiches, donated by Chester’s Ribs in Groton.