In her segment about the tornadic dangers to MH residents, Iowa’s KWWL-TV reporter Kera Mashek does not distinguish between pre-HUD Code homes and manufactured housing in her report. It is all “mobile homes” to her. Unfortunately, the U.S. Commerce Dept.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) statistics on fatalities resulting from tornadoes does not either. The video does show one MHC in Iowa that does have a storm shelter for residents, and a man living in MH who values the affordability over the fear factor. Stressing that no one is safe above ground in a tornado, Iowa Manufactured Housing Association (IMHA) member Margaret Clark, responding to the video, says the report gives the false sense that if you do not live in manufactured housing, you will be safe. Citing the Joplin twister that killed 160, none of whom lived in manufactured housing, Ms. Clark notes NOAA’s statistics which show over twice as many died in “permanent” homes as in “mobile homes”, without distinguishing between mobile and manufactured. She says Iowa law requires manufactured homes to be anchored 3-4 feet deep. MHProNews has learned Minnesota is the only state that requires MHC’s to have storm shelters. For Ms. Clark’s response to Kera Mashek, here is the link.
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