After several tornadoes hit a trailer park in the northern Alabama town of Muscle Shoals on April 5, Haley Lowery joined efforts to help the roughly 20 displaced families, most of whom are Hispanic.

Several of them are still displaced three weeks after the tornado, Lowery told AL.com this week.

“There’s still a lot of families that are in hotel rooms,” she said. “There are families that are in temporary living situations that we’re trying to find some homes for right now, and there’s a language barrier also — a lot of them don’t speak English.”

And some will never be able to come back.

Two weeks after the tornado, city officials placed notices around the park, ordering the demolition of 10 damaged structures out of about 70 mobile homes, prohibiting repairs or rebuilding, and asking all occupants to vacate immediately. The order includes the demolition and removal of such structures within 60 days.

“Failure to comply will result in the City undertaking demolition and removal, with the associated costs assessed as a lien against the property, collectible in the same manner as a property tax,” said the notice signed by the fire marshal and the building official.

In a series of email exchanges with AL.com, building official Jason Jones defended the move, including an additional instruction not to have any new trailers replace the removed ones. He said the city’s zoning does not permit mobile homes at that location close to city hall, after a damage, if the repair cost is more than half of the value.

The trailer park is considered a legally nonconforming use, commonly known as ‘grandfathered in’ because it existed long before the zoning regulations’ enactment.

“It’s been a B-2 (business) and R-3 (residential) zoning for a long time,” Jones said. “Mobile homes are not allowed in either zoning.”

Jones explained the rationale for the decision to order the structures’ removal and the prohibition of replacement. “The city came to the decision based on the damage being beyond 50% of replacement cost,” he said, citing a city ordinance to that effect.

The city’s zoning ordinance ends a property’s nonconforming status if it would require more than half of the replacement cost following a damage.

Joseph Pounders, who owns half the trailer park, objects to being unable to replace the one mobile home that must be removed from his side of the property but told AL.com he has not decided on a course of action.

The trailer park, which he and his sister inherited from their father, has been in that location since the 60s and the city’s growth has brought development close to it.

“I was here before they were, have been here since the 60s, and the city has moved out on us as they grow and now, they are telling me that I have a trailer standing and pull it out that I can’t put another one back in its place,” Pounders said.

“If it’s not got out of there and cleaned up, they are going to put a lien against my property on the taxes if they have to come in and clean it up themselves,” he added.

When AL.com visited the location this week, the devastation caused by the tornado was visible everywhere, with several buildings damaged by big trees uprooted by the storm.

Resident Juan Sales, who spoke Spanish and used a translation app to communicate, told AL.com that those whose homes were affected by the storm are no longer there.

“The ones from these houses that are already destroyed, they already left, they moved,” Sales said in Spanish through a translation app.

Both Lowery and Jones said there is a language barrier in communicating with the storm victims, who mostly speak Spanish.

“We talked with a couple of them and explained the situation but there is a language barrier even with someone they had translating,” Jones said.

They needed someone who could speak Spanish to help the advocates communicate with the storm victims, Lowery said.

Efforts to help the displaced include setting up a GoFundMe, which has garnered $725 out of a goal of $5000 as of May 2, and a collection of donations, including clothes, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, diapers, wipes and canned food.

Support for housing people in hotels has come from churches and the Red Cross, Lowery said.

“And then we’re kind of just paying out of pocket here and there too, to help out until we can find them somewhere to go,” she added.

“Everybody’s donated plenty of clothes and furniture and stuff like that, but now we’re at the point where we are trying to get people out of the hotel rooms,” she said. “We’ve been raising money to get people in homes, either trailers or apartments, if they can get approved.”

“We’ve been trying to help everybody get into a new home potentially that they will own, or even if they have to rent somewhere, help them with the first deposit and everything, helping them get in somewhere. And then those that don’t have vehicles, we’re working on getting some kind of transportation for them for the time being.”

Lowery’s particularly delighted at the opportunities for some residents to own their own spaces following the donation of at least two trailers.

“That’ll be like homes they will own forever,” she said. “They’re getting the bill of sale and they’re able to own them, so they don’t have to worry about paying rent anymore or any of that stress.”