In the 29 hours that Kath Noble’s mobile home park in Mesa was without power in July of 2023, she saw the many ways her neighbors were vulnerable.
The heat inside their mobile homes skyrocketed, which was especially dangerous for residents on oxygen tanks. Some people didn’t have access to cars to go to cooler places. And a resident walking around the park in the dark to check on a neighbor’s freezer took a fall that put him in the hospital for two days.
“I was so worried about them, especially this darling lady that lived two houses down from me,” said Noble, president of the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home Owners. “It was 115 degrees outside. It’s the most vulnerable ones that stayed, so we were worried about them.”…