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Tornado Safety of Manufactured Homes

In assessing the tornado safety of a manufactured home, one of the most important things to understand is that manufactured and mobile homes refer to the same kind of home. The manufactured home industry calls its homes "Manufactured Homes" because they believe the term represents the quality of modern mobile homes. Although they meet federal and local government safety and zoning standards, mobile or manufactured homes are lethal places to be during tornadoes.

  1. Tornado's Touch Can Be Deadly

    • Nature's most violent storms, tornadoes are born in powerful thunderstorms and can devastate neighborhoods and kill people in seconds. A tornado extends from a thunderstorm as a rotating funnel cloud containing winds that can reach 300 miles an hour. When it touches the ground, a tornado's damage path can be over one mile wide and 50 miles long. Mobile homes are especially vulnerable to tornadoes.

    Mobile Home Residents Are Vulnerable

    • According to Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, 640 of 1,641 tornado deaths since 1975, or about 40 percent, occurred in mobile homes. He said mobile home residents are between 15 and 20 times more likely to die in a tornado than people living in wood frame houses. Brooks cited these statistics after a tornado destroyed a mobile home park in Evansville, Indiana, in 2005, killing 19 people and injuring hundreds.

    Tornado Winds Topple Mobile Homes

    • The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development regulates mobile home construction and how they are anchored to the ground. Manufactured homes are not built on permanent foundations, but are tied down with straps. They don't have interior rooms or basements for shelter during bad weather. A tornado might slightly damage a home with a foundation, but it can significantly damage a manufactured home, especially an older model or one that is not properly tied down.

    Shortage of Storm Cellars

    • Most mobile home parks do not have community storm shelters for tornado protection. According to the Manufactured Housing Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, Minnesota is the only state requiring mobile home parks to have a community storm shelter. The Manufactured Housing Institute says that the lack of community shelters in mobile home parks puts mobile home communities at greater risk.

    FEMA /Red Cross Say Escape!

    • The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) warns people in mobile homes to leave them immediately if there is a threat of a tornado. Go to the lowest floor of a sturdy nearby building or a storm shelter. Even if mobile homes are tied down, they don't offer tornado protection. According to the Red Cross, if your mobile home park doesn't have a tornado shelter, don't wait until the tornado strikes to come up with an alternative plan. Before a tornado watch or warning, locate another building that you can reach very quickly in case of a tornado.

    NOAH Says Escape!

    • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAH) gives the same advice as FEMA and the Red Cross. NOAH says that iIf there is a sturdy building within easy running distance, seek shelter there. If you run out of time, lie flat on low ground away from your home, protecting your head. If possible, use open ground away from trees and cars, which can blow onto you. Most of all, plan ahead before a tornado strikes.

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