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> “…All weather-hazard related deaths in the United States are recorded as fatalities with no further information or considerations as to the scope of their injuries or why they perished…”
> “For your questions about fatalities inside or outside of factory-produced homes. Again, no distinction or considerations are made about how building materials led to a person’s death, where the person was located, etc. If a fatality occurs as a direct result from the tornado passing through, i.e. flying debris, crushed by debris/trees, or anything having directly linked to the tornado itself, it is just counted as a fatality with no additional information…”
– both statements by Greg Schoor, Severe Storms Services Coordinator, National Weather Service (NWS).
What the above quotations from NWS’ Schoor means is this. If someone leaves their mobile or manufactured home due to a weather warning and that person dies outside of their home, that is counted as a death against that dwelling. Unless a structure is rated by FEMA to withstand winds and flying debris in excess of 200 miles per hour, there is a risk. But it is logically absurd to think that someone is safer in a ditch or outdoors than in a properly installed manufactured home.
The video below demonstrates that fact using third-party news and research footage.
Dare to Compare
While every premature death is tragic, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) data and the National Weather Service data below make something stunning clear. You are over 48,000 times more likely to die of an accident, cancer or cardiac event than you are to die in a mobile or manufactured home during a tornado.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson in this mainstream news media discussed affordable housing in general, manufactured homes in particular and he explained that they are resilient in severe weather. Note that resilient doesn’t mean tornado proof, but it does mean – as the data and videos above indicate – that it is far stronger and safer than the public generally believes.
That statement is based upon research that the National Association of Realtor’s Scholastic Cororaton, Certified Business Economist (CBE) summed up this way.
The facts about affordable, modern manufactured homes are often surprisingly different than many believe. Addressing those who mistakenly think that manufactured housing is the same as mobile homes of the past, Harold D. Hunt, PhD, of the Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center said tongue in cheek, these surprising marvels of affordable living are “Not Your Grandfather’s Trailer House.”
Every year, a few people tragically die in windstorms in conventional housing as well as in mobile homes or manufactured homes. Because of how records are kept, there is sadly no distinction made between the underregulated mobile homes of the past and the manufactured homes of today. The odds are hundreds of thousands to one in your favor if you live in a manufactured home that you won’t die in a weather event, even during a particularly severe year of windstorms. On a more normal year, the odds may be millions to one in your favor. No one gets out of this life alive. But the odds are massively in your favor that you won’t die in a mobile or manufactured home during a wind event. That’s what the facts reveal. So don’t worry about it, just be prudent. Make sure your home is properly installed. Take similar precautions as you would with any other structure.
Don’t let fear or misinformation keep you or a loved one from discovering the most affordable permeant housing option in America. That said, we recommend that shoppers do their homework. Like any profession, there are ‘white hats in manufactured housing (see report linked above) and so-called black hats too.
To learn more, see the reports linked below. “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Mobile and Manufactured Home Lifestyle News, news, commentary, fact-checks and analysis.)
(Third-party images, content and citations are provided under fair use guidelines.)
Soheyla Kovach co-founder of MHLivingNews, (pronounced like Co-Vatch like a watch with a V) and is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC parent company to this platform and MHProNews.
Related Reports:
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