Florida homeowners are no longer silent victims of the state's insurance crisis. From the Keys to the Panhandle, they've mobilized.

In Miami-Dade County, they have launched a major petition drive to tell lawmakers in Tallahassee that soaring rates are choking their personal finances and the quality of their lives. In Pembroke Park, mobile-home owners are putting some new ideas on the table. In Brevard and Collier counties, groups of home and business owners have been hard at work crafting their own insurance solutions.

''Next year, I won't have any savings,'' said Zenobia Lopez of Biscayne Gardens, who signed the Miami-Dade petition. ``Where am I supposed to come up with $5,000 again? We need to do something.''

Rather than stand by as insurance rates climb rapidly along with gas, property taxes and other living expenses, tens of thousands of Florida residents are demanding action. Come Jan. 16, when the Legislature begins a weeklong special session to address the state's insurance crisis, some of these newly minted consumer activists will swarm the state Capitol.

''It's our legislators that are doing this to us,'' said Julio Pinto of Kendall.

Pinto, who pays $9,000 annually in property insurance, is one of more than 35,000 Florida homeowners who have signed the growing petition, launched by a Kendall-area firm. Hundreds more signatures roll in daily.

Dynamic Public Adjusters Group, a Kendall-area company that helps homeowners try to get higher returns on insurance claims, started the petition in September under the name Floridians in Action. The group is now beginning to put together a board of directors so its work can continue long after the petition has been delivered.

Some of what the petition seeks: rate relief, tougher statewide building codes and a strong lobbying effort for a national catastrophe fund.

MOVEMENT SPREADS

The document has since infiltrated neighborhoods from the Keys to the Panhandle by way of public service announcements, Spanish and English websites, a blog, postcards left at restaurant counters and, most of all, word of mouth.

Dynamic's owner, Belen Valladares, plans to continue the drive right up until the special session. The group is planning to take along a busload of supporters when Valladares presents the petition to legislators in Tallahassee.

''What we want to do is make sure that the insurance industry doesn't get away with passing all kinds of legislation on us,'' Valladares said.

Ileana Gonzalez, a Miami homeowner whose rate doubled this year to $3,000, said she heard about the website AdjustLoss.com through a friend and e-mailed the link to her entire address book.

Other signers wrote that insurance has become a luxury they can no longer afford. Some are dropping coverage, others are being priced out of their homes.

Meanwhile, a group of mobile-home owners in Broward County's Pembroke Park isn't shy about putting new ideas on the table, even if some lawmakers sometimes are. They would like to see auto insurers cover mobile homes since they now insure recreational vehicles and boats.

''If the auto insurers would cover the mobile homes, we could alleviate the burden on Citizens Property Insurance,'' said Michael Sousy, Pembroke Park's code enforcement and community liaison officer, who has helped organize the mobile-home owners.

Citizens is the state-run insurer of last resort. But for many homeowners, like folks who own mobile homes, older houses or condos in coastal areas, Citizens is the only insurer. With nearly 1.3 million policies -- nearly half of those in South Florida -- it's the largest insurer in the state.