Posted on 03/28/2023 9:01:56 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Severe storms in the South that killed at least 21 people in Mississippi and Alabama highlight the dangers of being inside a mobile home or manufactured home during severe weather.
Many of the dozens of homes destroyed in the storms were manufactured. In the hardest-hit community of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, 24% of housing units in the county are manufactured homes according to the Census Bureau.
To really drive it home, the National Weather Service says you are 15-20% more likely to die in a manufactured home than a permanent home during severe weather.
The danger is magnified in the southeastern United States, according to Stephen Strader, an associate professor at Villanova University.
Strader specializes in what he calls "disaster geography," or studying the effects natural disasters like tornadoes have on society and our environment. Most of the manufactured homes in the Southeast exist outside of the typical mobile home parks you would see in other parts of the country.
“They're isolated on different plots of land by themselves or maybe with one or two other homes,” Strader said. “What that means is they're 20, 30 minutes away from the nearest shelter. So, if the (tornado) warning is 13 minutes away, and you're 20 minutes away from your shelter, it's the middle of the night. You have two kids, you have to get them out of bed. Your car may not want to start… (things) just start stacking up.”
(Excerpt) Read more at weather.com ...
Some manufactured homes even have basements and are not converted trailers.
I do wish people would get this right.
15-20% greater chance is a lot less than I would have thought.
Dr. Johnny Fever : [recounting his boyhood experience with a tornado] My mother and I were in a tornado once. We were in a mobile home, and I think God must really hate mobile homes, Andy, because tornadoes always attack them first... they get very mobile.
How is a tornado like a redneck divorce?
Somebody’s fixin’ to lose a double wide.
I know! Let’s price poor people out of the housing market entirely!
We’ll put them in built to government spec section 8 high-rises towering over your neighborhood (not mine!)
You’re right, there is a difference between a trailer house (mobile home) and manufactured home.
MH could be a double-wide or modular on a regular pad or even a full basement like ours. We have hit the basement a couple of times during tornado warnings.
Trailer houses are still on wheels and at the mercy of the elements.
This is news?? When I grew up in Oklahoma in the ‘60s we called trailers tornado magnets even then.
Better still....clad the building in 5/8 thick plywood....install triple pain windows and add a mud room porch.
Oh come on for this tornado the wind was so high it ripped apart everything. Including commercial buildings. I guess that fact does not matter to the left.
God hates trailer parks.
Anything EF-3 or above will obliterate any house. Manufactured on site or in a factory won’t change that.
The major difference is not the quality of construction, as manufactured homes are built in a weatherproof factory are inspected on site. They're often built with 2x6 or better construction and are built to withstand being hauled down the highway at speeds over 50 MPH.
The reason they're more susceptible to damage is the method used to attach them to the ground. Most manufactured home parks only require moorings every so many feet while others placed on an actual foundation are much more secure. It's easier for winds to blow them over when they're not fully attached to the ground, then the damage occurs.
“I know! Let’s price poor people out of the housing market entirely!”
I despise the mentality that stereotypes people who live in trailers. I’ve never lived in one, but I know plenty of people who have, usually for a first home. The government makes building codes so strict that it raises the price of houses out of reach for many people, then everybody stereotypes them when they live trailers. That’s a total elitist mindset.
Trailers used to be built with 2x2s every 4 feet. Now they are 2x4 and 2x6 and 16/24 on center like any house.
Sounds like the article is referring to oldermobile homes/double wides and lack of basements or underground shelter.
Old prejudices. Sounds like they want to regulate manufactured housing to trailer parks.
Thing is, most houses today are manufactured. Tresses arefrequently built off site and brought in.
I watched new houses being built in Virginia and sold for a hugh price.
The only plywood in the outside walls were in the corners. The rest of the outside walls consisted of insulation foam and vinyl siding.
I’ll take a manufactured house over that.
Lol, I was looking to see if that joke had been posted.
The valley I live in is probably 95% manufactured homes.
Mobile home production ceased between 1974 and 1976. In 1974, they had to meet higher standard (National Mobile Home Construction and Safety Act). Manufactured homes, built to HUD standards have been built since 1976 (. A mobile home would be anything built pre-HUD standards. 2x2 construction hasn't been allowed since 1974.
Modern manufactured and modular homes are very similar. The primary difference is a modular home is designed to be placed on a permanent foundation while manufactured homes can be placed on a permanent foundation, but are often still placed on post and beam moorings and can still be moved again if so desired.
My MANUFACTURED HOME has exterior of “CEMENT BOARD”.
Been here 18 years. NO COMPLAINTS.
Bingo! I love my manufactured home.
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