“It would be nice to remove stigma from manufactured homes,” a local official told MHLivingNews about the Stamping Grounds, KY tornado and related destruction. His email added, “but I don’t see it happening as long as they routinely get catastrophic damage from minor incidents.” There is much more to this story from several sources, including from that same on-the ground, first-hand witness to the damage in the manufactured home community hit by that Scott County, KY tornado. More from his keen in-person inspection insights, several news videos, a storm chaser video, background or comparison video reports, and more are part of this report. Because that official has a point, this is one of the most important and least understood issues to millions of Americans who are seeking affordable housing. That informed local source said he found installation problems with some dramatically damaged manufactured homes, apparently because they lacked anchors that manufacturers and industry experts recommend. So, one top-line takeaway for anyone in a mobile home or manufactured home? Make sure your home is properly anchored. For a fairly modest investment, your home could be protected and lives can be saved. As an example, several of the mobile/manufactured homes in that same 34 home community, named Parker Mobile Home Park, reported little or no damage. Those homes were in some cases side by side, across the street, nearby or in close proximity to each other. 10 units where condemned after being inspected for tornado damage by local officials. Meanwhile, the other 24 manufactured homes had power restored along with the hundreds of conventional houses in town that also lost power. There were no fatalities. But a few injuries including a neck trauma that placed someone in the hospital, were reported, per local media.

This report will focus on facts and evidence, including from experts that will be cited. The official cited off the record made it clear that those 4 homes that were “destroyed” is that none of them were properly secured, meaning anchored. There are hundreds of mobile and manufactured homes in that area, that official told MHLivingNews. He wants to make sure that he is able to work effectively with local property owners, but still wants to inform the public about what his inspection revealed.

Facebook Embed Fire Dept

 

“Thank you for reaching out for my opinion,” he said about revealing the damage he found after the storm blew through. “We found 4 mobile homes [sic] destroyed (on their side and on top of each other).” A National Weather Service (NWS) official who was on the scene said this was an EF1 tornado.

“My observation was that none of the homes were properly secured. 1 trailer on its side had one strap and the other three had none we could discover.

As the event progressed, we found 6 more homes that ended up being condemned for major damage after being picked up and set down or blown off foundation piers. They were not properly secured either.”

That may be more important than the professional who made that statement to MHLivingNews realized. Why? Because a post-tornado study done in Alabama reported that a common feature that they found in seriously tornado damaged or destroyed mobile and manufactured homes was improper installation.

WeatherUnderground reported that “An analysis led by engineer David Roueche (Auburn University) found that 19 of the 23 deaths on March 3—all of them in Lee County, Alabama” were manufactured homes. They implied that the other deaths were not mobile or manufactured homes. That is partially due to what they said was: “All of these [mobile/manufactured] homes either lacked ground anchors entirely, had degraded anchors, or had anchorage systems that did not appear to meet state code, according to a March 27 report issued by the Auburn-led Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance Network.”

Despite claims that ‘trailer houses,’ mobile homes, and manufactured homes being ‘tornado magnets,’ that is clearly debunked by cases where only or predominantly conventional housing was damaged or destroyed by tornadoes. A tornado can be one of nature’s most destructive forces. Yet, there is obvious evidence that conventional houses on one side of a street were leveled or severely damaged. On the other side of the street, the houses looked largely intact.

 

 

 

For some well-known and other examples. In Joplin Missouri and Moore Oklahoma had dozens and dozens of conventional homes demolished. The video above is from an ATM surveillance video camera in front of a bank that had a conventional ‘site built’ house across the street. Once the tornado hits that conventional ‘stick built’ house, it is apparently leveled in a matter of seconds before the video feed during that tornado faded out. The takeaways are many. But one is one we’ve stressed for years. The safest structure to be in during a tornado is in an underground shelter. Commercial buildings, schools, and other structures have been seriously damaged or destroyed by tornadoes.

2013 Moore Oklahoma EF5 Tornado Path and Destruction on Google Earth – Jan 17, 2021

The good news? Very few deaths occur every year due to tornadoes. Those that occur in mobile or manufactured homes are often due to what the engineering researchers below stated were there findings.

Among the findings of the Auburn-led Structural Extreme Event Reconnaissance Network:

• “Lack of proper anchorage in both older site-built homes and manufactured homes of all ages appears to be a key contributor to the enhanced fatality rates.”
• “Significant material degradation due to corrosion and other natural processes is frequently being observed in the lateral and vertical wind load paths of manufactured homes.”
• “Newer site-built homes and engineered buildings provided adequate life-safety protection, even in the EF4 tornado, despite damage to the building structural system. In contrast, new manufactured homes were not able to protect life safety, due in large part to a lack of sufficient anchorage.”

Let’s note that the above are there stated findings, some of which may be debatable. Why? Because when they say ‘new’ they likely mean ‘newer’ as opposed to older. After the passage of the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA), installation standards were added on a state-federal basis. So, ‘sufficient anchorage’ is arguably not a problem since that law went into effect. But even before then, “In 1994, HUD revised and increased its wind safety standards after Hurricane Andrew stuck in 1992.” Wind Zone 2 and 3 manufactured homes have proven to be as resilient and most conventional houses. While there have been occasional information on this from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), they have demonstrably failed to get and stay in front of the media, inspectors, and others when windstorm events occur. This is despite their own past-chairman saying that that “there is a good argument to be made” for responding to every story. He was logically correct, but even pro-MHI member Darren Krolewski said that seemingly bad news reports outweigh in the public perception the good news reports.

 

That said, back to the insights from the local official to MHLivingNews.

“We were lucky that this event did not cause loss of life or more serious injuries.”

He said that “code enforcement are working with the park owner[s] to get all 34 trailers [sic] inspected and correctly secured before people are allowed to inhabit them.”

“I would prefer that my name not be included in the article.” He explained that was for the sake of what amounts to local politics, because he has to work with people that he would be commenting about. “However, I am available for follow up questions.”

In fact, he promptly responded to an additional follow up.

“I will do anything I can to make the mobile home community safer. There are at least 600 more trailers [sic] in our county similar to these.”

While that off-the-record quoted official mixed his use of terminology from trailer, to mobile home, to manufactured home, the clear sense was that he sincerely wanted to see all such residents safeguarded. He is concerned that some property owners are selling or leasing home that are not properly installed.

When asked if anyone else in the manufactured home industry (i.e.: the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) or others), he replied that: “No one else has reached out to me.” Meaning, none besides this trade media.

He explained that “I only found out recently that [the] local building inspection officer and fire marshal have no jurisdiction over manufactured homes.” In some respects, that is true due to the HUD Code.

Inspection isn’t required when property changes hands. Poor people are being sold unsafe properties. As long as they are standing, move in and live there.

The affected folks are having to pull permits and pay more than their home is worth to set it correctly. I fear they will abandon this trailer and buy another 3500 dollar unit that may or may not be safe.

Just my 2 cents. It would be nice to remove stigma from manufactured homes but I don’t see it happening as long as they routinely get catastrophic damage from minor incidents.

Thank you for reaching out for my opinion.”

 

Context Is Crucial – Additional Information, More MHLivingNews Facts, Evidence, Analysis and Commentary

MHLivingNews and our MHProNews sister-site have made the point that MHI is not wrong on everything, but they often posture, palter, and say something useful but then fail to follow up with deeds that match their words.

For example.

MHI’s Patti Boerger aptly noted in a tornado-related news release 5 year ago the following.

• Manufactured housing provides quality, affordable housing for more than 22 million very low-, low- and moderate-income Americans.
• The median annual income of manufactured homeowners is about $26,000.

Stop for a moment. Homes that are a fraction of the price of conventional housing, and “Manufactured homes are as safe as traditional homes during a storm, and in hurricane zones, the standards for manufactured homes are more stringent than regional and national building codes for site-built homes.” Who says? The provide some of the third-party research sources that back that claim up.

More on that following these pull quotes from MHI’s Boerger.

• “In most of the country (non-hurricane-prone areas), manufactured homes are built to withstand a 136 miles per hour wind speed when they are located in Zone 1 of the HUD Basic Wind Zone Map.  In areas prone to hurricane-force winds (Wind Zones II and III), the standards for manufactured homes are equivalent to the current regional and national building codes for site-built homes.  Manufactured homes are designed and constructed to withstand wind speeds of 150 miles per hour in Wind Zone 2 and 163 miles per hour in Wind Zone 3, based on standards from the 2012 International Building Code.”
• “A tornado and hurricane’s deadly force does not selectively discriminate between a site-built, a manufactured home or any structure.”
• The name “mobile homes” refers to homes built before 1976, when the HUD code was implemented. Since then they have been called manufactured homes, constructed in a controlled factory environment and built to the HUD Code. These federal standards regulate manufactured housing design and construction, strength and durability, transportability, fire resistance, energy efficiency and quality.
• In 1994, HUD revised and increased its wind safety standards after Hurricane Andrew stuck in 1992. The result was that during the hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004, not one manufactured home built and installed after 1994 was destroyed by hurricane force winds.

Several of those points have previously been reported by MHLivingNews, using other sources. Let’s continue with the useful parts of their statements from Boerger.

• In 2007, the federal government established standards requiring all new manufactured homes to meet minimum requirements for installation and anchoring in accordance with its structural design and windstorm standards. In addition, states have the authority to establish additional installation standards above the minimum federal standards. State governments may establish installation and anchoring requirements for homes depending on soil conditions and other factors in their state.
• 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.
• In May 2001, Texas Tech University’s Wind Science & Engineering Center in Lubbock, Texas, conducted studies on the effects of strong winds on manufactured housing. A single-section manufactured home, built to Wind Zone I standards (for regions not likely to experience hurricane-force winds), was exposed to the prop wash of a C-130 transport aircraft which created winds in excess of 90 miles per hour. After prolonged exposure to such winds, the manufactured home experienced only limited damage, primarily loss of roofing shingles and some minor structural damage.

MHLivingNews previously spotlighted that research, including the insightful video below that shows that specific wind test. The desk-top video below is one of the most popular online about manufactured homes, tornadoes and windstorms.

 

It’s very cold & dark, but the Stamping Ground community is still hard at work in Parker’s Mobile Home Park after the early morning tornado. Hear one family’s story of narrow escape after their home was crushed during the storm. Tonight on @WKYT pic.twitter.com/89CzppmTaX

— Grason Passmore WKYT (@GrasonWkyt) December 6, 2021

 

Installing Tie Down Straps by My Fortress Construction

 

Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Windstorms Impact Conventional vs Manufactured Homes

This may be the most comprehensive single video on the comparison between manufactured housing vs. conventional site built commercial and residential housing during and after a tornado, hurricane or other windstrom. 

 

National Geographic Birth of a Tornado

Watch The Birth of a Tornado | National Geographic

3,711,510 views

May 21, 2013

Channel 11 in NJ said in the video that follows that 1,700+ Newnan [conventional] homes damaged by EF-4 tornado

Officials say 70 homes were complete destroyed.

 

The Guardian Oklahoma tornado: elementary school moments after tornado struck

This video had over 3.7 million views so far. It reflects that conventional housing residents hit by tornadoes are no different than those who live in a mobile or manufactured home hit by the Stamping Ground tornado.

School pupils in Moore, Oklahoma, cry and hug teachers and parents just moments after Monday’s devastating tornado hit Briarwood Plaza elementary school. Strong winds are still blowing as distressed children search for friends and parents. The school was one of five in the path of the twister, which left at least 24 people dead and 237 injured.

 

The videos on installing anchors posted further above and the one below are not advertising. MHLivingNews is providing the information with the caveat that it is routinely preferable to have a licensed, bonded, and insured professional do such work. But when budgets are tight, it is common sense that a homeowner without anchors, or with rusted or failing systems, is not as safe as having a properly installed anchor by the homeowner, family, or friends. Posting these videos is for information purposes only, these are not advertisers, nor is any endorsement is implied.

INSTALL MOBILE HOME EARTH ANCHORS BY HAND

 

 

Back to the Stamping Ground and Parker’s Mobile Home Park

It has aptly been said that when something is important to you, it is better to know more than it is to know less. So, MHLivingNews is providing this collection of third-party, mostly news videos on the recent Scott County, KY storm. Note, that those homes clearly shown appear to be manufactured homes, not mobile homes. But as the engineers noted above, even a site built house that is improperly anchored is vulnerable to major windstorm storm damage.

It’s very cold & dark, but the Stamping Ground community is still hard at work in Parker’s Mobile Home Park after the early morning tornado. Hear one family’s story of narrow escape after their home was crushed during the storm. Tonight on @WKYT pic.twitter.com/89CzppmTaX

— Grason Passmore WKYT (@GrasonWkyt) December 6, 2021

EF1 tornado hits Stamping Ground mobile home park – Dec 6, 2021.

 

It’s very cold & dark, but the Stamping Ground community is still hard at work in Parker’s Mobile Home Park after the early morning tornado. Hear one family’s story of narrow escape after their home was crushed during the storm. Tonight on @WKYT pic.twitter.com/89CzppmTaX

— Grason Passmore WKYT (@GrasonWkyt) December 6, 2021

 

EF1 tornado hits Stamping Ground mobile home park

 

A EF1 tornado, with 95 mph winds, hit Stamping Ground Parker’s Mobile Home Park Monday.

Live Storms Media

LEX18: Stamping Ground fire officials confirm that two mobile homes overturned overnight into Monday morning. Emergency management officials say 14 of the 34 homes in the park cannot be occupied at this time. Several of them were already vacant structures. At last count, six of the homes are “totally destroyed.”

 

 

John Gordon with the National Weather Service out of Louisville. Gordon said on camera that the NWS was caused by surprise by this windstorm storm. One of the posted comments made a similar statement.

Among the posted comments from what appear to be locals are the following.

• Citizen Erased

2 days ago

I live in Scott county about 5 miles away from there, no tornado warning issued, nothing else issued. Crazy.

 

• meg T

1 day ago

10,000 lbs flipped over like a toy. Scary and sad

 

• Olivia McLean

1 day ago

I live in stamping grond and all I got was a power outage

 

Earth Central

 

LEX18 Stamping Ground fire officials confirm that two mobile homes overturned overnight into Monday morning. Emergency management officials say 14 of the 34 homes in the park cannot be occupied at this time. Several of them were already vacant structures. At last count, six of the homes are “totally destroyed.”

 

 

FOX Weather A resident had to dig up his fiancée from underneath rubble after a confirmed EF-1 tornado touched down in Kentucky. #foxweather #kentucky #tornado Sign up for updates from FOX Weather.

 

 

 

WLKY News Louisville – Tornado with 95 mph winds makes touchdown in Central Kentucky.

 

 

LEX18 Tornado tears through mobile home park in Scott County.

 

 

Georgetown/ Scott County Emergency Management said one person is in the ICU at UK Hospital in serious condition with a neck injury after the tornado. Two other people have minor injuries.

The National Weather Service said “trailers [SIC] were lifted off their foundation, flipped over, or turned in a different direction. Insulation and metal siding from the trailers [SIC] were thrown up into the trees and deck pieces were thrown and impaled into the ground.”

I just spoke with the man who lives in the pink home. He was dozing off when the other mobile home hit his and tore the roof off. He says he’s lived here for 20 years and is trying to find a place to go. @LEX18News https://t.co/72rI4ObvEp

— Evelyn Schultz (@EvelynSchultzTV) December 6, 2021

The bottom line? Affordable housing is an absolute necessity. Yes, common sense anchoring and installation standards are needed for all mobile and manufactured homes. But these have been recommended for decades. They were enacted into federal law by the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA) for all homes since that law went into effect.  The evidence is clear that conventional construction, commercial buildings – and yes – mobile and manufactured homes are subject to being damaged or destroyed by windstorms of all types. That said, common sense safety precautions can reduce the already low rate of deaths and injuries that occur each year.

Every premature loss of life or avoidable injury is a tragedy. That said, if someone looks at pure data, the deaths and injuries from storm injuries in mobile and manufactured homes are a tiny fraction of how many die from heart attacks, cancer, auto accidents, etc. More people die in bathrooms every year than die in a tornado in mobile or manufactured homes.  Common sense is necessary if Americans are to make the most proven solution to affordable housing widely accessible.  If you already live in a mobile or manufactured home, take the precautions before the storm hits. If you are shopping for a pre-owned mobile or manufactured home, then make sure that home is properly anchored. Let’s save and protect lives and property by acting wisely. ##

 

 

 

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Postscript. From the lighter to the dark side of mobile and manufactured home living, there are no better sources than MHLivingNews and our MHProNews sister site. We lay out the facts and insights that others are too agenda-driven, lazy, or otherwise uninformed to do. That’s what makes our sister site and this location the runaway leaders for authentic information about affordable housing in general, the politics behind the problems, and manufactured homes specifically.

That’s a wrap on this installment of “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)

By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.com.

Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing. For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.

http://latonykovach.com

Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

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The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.