MARATHON, Fla. (Reuters) – For eight months Terri Metter creates her home inside a government trailer parked along a debris-clogged canal from the Florida Keys and she or he considers herself lucky since Hurricane Irma forced a lot of her former neighbors to maneuver away from the once-idyllic archipelago.

Metter has become bunked down in temporary housing given by the federal government Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) since November, following the Category 4 storm, with winds of as much as 130 miles per hour (209 kph), strafed nearby Cudjoe Key on Sept. 10, 2019.

"A number of people have discovered housing on boats or they're lying on couches, but many people who work here can't manage to stay and it's a tragic thing," said the 50-year-old bookkeeper and bartender in Marathon, an urban area made from 13 tiny islands about 50 miles east of Key West and 115 miles southwest of Miami.

Though high of mainland Florida escaped major damage, the Keys were devastated. The place islands, stretching southwest on the tip within the Florida Peninsula to the Gulf of Mexico, are connected by way of single, narrow highway that runs along a number of bridges and causeways.

The hurricane destroyed almost 1,200 homes in Monroe County, this includes the Keys and areas of the mainland that will be almost entirely in Everglades National Park. That figure excludes trailers, a preferred sort of housing within the Keys, and houses damaged so severely that owners simply abandoned them.

Overall, 84 individuals in Florida died on account of Irma, along with the region, including other southeastern states, suffered a projected $50 billion amount of damage, in accordance with the National Hurricane Center.

As the hurricane approached, Metter evacuated and stayed with family in Michigan, but returned per month later to observe the devastation in her neighborhood, where only eight of 50 trailers and homes remained intact. Rotting debris and seaweed filled her home, and she decided rebuilding was the only option.

Others did not have choice but to live elsewhere. Deficiencies in affordable, safe housing forced a lot of those who work with the Keys' numerous restaurants and hotels to maneuver towards mainland, officials said.

"Consumers are moving into unlawful spaces that don't meet code, unsafe spaces, and the’ve been getting this done given that they plan to be there and it's the only way they’ll find the money to be there," said Jaimie Ross, president within the Florida Housing Coalition.

Monroe County Commissioner George Neugent expects a few who lost components or suffered major injury to never keep returning. In 2019, the county's population totaled about 79,000, almost all of them currently in the Keys, using the U.S. Census Bureau.

"I'm estimating between 15 and 25 percent of the population is going to be lost and that we shed more and even more each day," he said.

To reduce the housing deficit, Monroe County has teamed with private developers and donors with a want to build homes ideal for withstanding 200 mile-per-hour winds that are affordable for hospitality workers. Florida Governor Rick Scott while stating lawmakers are also weighing an offer for 1,300 new housing units for workers from the Keys.

The construction cannot come fast enough as the region braces for what this year's hurricane season, which began June 1, will provide towards the region.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center expects the season becoming a near-normal to above-normal season with regards to the number and level of storms.

The long recovery from Irma and also the previous hurricane season has raised doubts with many, said Neil Curran, 45, a contractor and waiter who lost the 42-foot sailboat where he lived off Key West during last year's storm.

While Curran is renting a whole new boat after bouncing around regarding green dozen FEMA-funded resort rooms, he stated he knew for at least two dozen friends who have left the islands, and more for the cusp of leaving.

"Across the summer, we're intending to go to the pretty big mass exodus," he stated.