Posted on 03/28/2023 9:01:56 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Building garbage houses and selling them for a high price is common in Virginia. They get away with it because MOST people who buy them don’t intend to live there for more than a few years. And they tend to be impressed with the stainless steel appliances and granite countertops, what’s behind the walls, they couldn’t care less about.
I still marvel at the power of the Jarrell Tornado, there was literally nothing left but the slabs.
Tornado Country - James Gregory
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=456383448263831
New manufactured homes are built to the same wind standards as site-built homes.
“In areas prone to hurricane-force winds (Wind Zones II and III) of the HUD Basic Wind Zone Map, the standards for manufactured homes are equivalent to the current regional and national building codes for site-built homes. Manufactured homes are designed to withstand wind speeds of 100 miles per hour in Wind Zone 2 and 110 miles per hour in Wind Zone 3.
In addition, federal regulations for manufactured homes require the involvement of design and quality assurance professionals during construction to verify that the home is built correctly. Conventional residential construction does not require all of this...A 2014 Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) test found that manufactured homes performed better at high winds than traditional-built homes when any attached structures are properly installed. It also suggested that improperly installed attached structures like carports and patio roofs, are what cause about 80 percent of the damage in manufactured homes.”
Manufactured homes built before 1976 and/or trailers are different. But I don’t think the idiots writing the article know that.
They are trained to incite, but not to enlighten.
I’m reminded of the episode of “King of the Hill” in which Luanne’s trailer (or her mom’s) was blown over by a tornado.
Evidence:
"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.
Translated: You're 80-85% safer in a 'permanent' home than in a manufactured home in a tornado. Asinine.
Try telling that to these folks:
Oh, C’mon, you are just daring Gawd to get you! Why not just paint a target on the roof?
Trailers attract high winds — and flying cows.
Any such without a storm cellar within running distance are living in the wrong place. :)
Manufactured and modular are the the same thing to regulatory agencies...
Wow. I had to look that one up. The outbreak lasted 7 hours and Jarrell got winds over 260 MPH. Wow. Just. Wow.
For anyone curious about what Fedzilla thinks...
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/rmra/mhs/faqs
The author’s LinkedIn page explains a lot.
I didn’t go there, but I’m not surprised.
I have a friend who says he never has to worry about losing his keys. He can cut through the wall with his pocket knife if he has to.
Seeing videos like this at least restores some of my faith in humanity....
03-28-2023 Rolling Fork, MS - Tornado Relief - Cooking - Cleanup - Sound with Victim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyfQCk7OXBo
That doesn’t sound like a problem with manufactured homes. That sounds like a problem with living in the sticks. Doesn’t matter how the home is built, 20 minutes from shelter is 20 minutes from shelter.
Aren’t **all** homes manufactured?
I don’t see why a factory manufactured home couldn’t be **superior** in design over an on-site manufactured home.
My father, an old school construction guy, always said that factory built homes are stronger than stick built because they need to be able to endure the delivery.
Well, as evidenced by various howls of outrage above, the danger does depend on the quality of construction either way.
But if one actually visits tornado sites, whether in person or, say, by drone, online, whatever is in “trailer parks” as of this decade definitely fares worse than houses in “conventional” neighborhoods. My wife and I took food to friends in Mayfield, KY, a few days after the December 2021 low end F4 tornado, and looped all around the town outside of the downtown business district, which was closed off. SOME homes directly in the path were completely destroyed, but usually one could tell, more or less, what had been there. Many still had at least some interior walls upright or leaning (very common). Brick-veneer homes tended to do better than not.* Manufactured and “trailer” homes were generally just piles of rubble, and often said rubble (pretty much everything but the foundation or slab) was mostly or completely removed from the foundation.
*The problem with brick and / or masonry is that if a wall does come down on you, you’re in big trouble. But, the interior portions of most of the brick homes still had “survivable” interior spaces. I was in a brick veneer home in an F3 as a 10 y/o, the home built around 1956. It lost much of the roof, and exterior walls were from warped / cracked to fallen inward, but, not through the floor into the partial basement where we were sheltered. The north end of the house looked “best”, but even there, the joints to the concrete basement walls / foundation were pulled over halfway loose.
*I conclude the weight of the brick helped keep the entire house above ground level from going airborne**, so, such mass CAN be helpful — there were survivable spaces in the interior hallway that ran much the length of the house. If the whole house does a “Dorothy”, the outlook isn’t good, regardless of how strong the walls are. OTOH, in the infamous “Candle Factory” in Mayfield, KY, a cement block wall collapsed on people. :-(
**In that F3 tornado, a neighbor had a very well built (”stick” construction) non-attached 2-car garage on a slab beside their (very nice) largish house. The house suffered moderate damage (still livable post-storm), but the garage got picked up as a unit and dumped into a pond in back of the house. In times when the water got a bit low and clear, from the right angle you could see the top of the roof, intact as far as could be seen, just below the surface.
My conclusion would be that a modern manufactured home VERY well attached to the foundation (say, heavy foundation bolts every 18” or so, to a real foundation or slab) might be survivable in a low end F3, but would not be salvageable. Any metal roof on any type structure would need likely 3x screws around all edges, to have a chance...
Actually, a few spots in the Mayfield tornado did get up to 188 mph, according to the NWS, so those spots got a very solid revised Fujita scale F4. Mostly right in the center of town....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.