Hurricane Dorian is expected to make landfall in Florida or possible Georgia on Labor Day Monday. As manufactured housing industry veterans know, this will push at various times the words “mobile homes” and “manufactured homes” into news reports in a typically problematic fashion. FEMA may well enter into the mix, which could mean MHUs – emergency manufactured housing units ordered by FEMA – could be news again soon too.
First, here is a focused video that describes the impending storm. Obviously, common sense precautions should be followed.
Longtime readers on MHProNews and/or MHLivingNews know that climate change and manufactured housing made the news a couple of years ago, when a small team of university researchers cited in the report linked below made it an issue. While the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) stood silent publicly, MHProNews and the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) engaged on the issue, and obtained admissions from those researchers that were useful to our industry. Has MHI used those admissions? Not to our knowledge. Why not? Let that question sink in.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson in the video below tied ‘resilience’ and affordability into a single phrase with respect to modern manufactured homes.
But with millions believing in climate change as a threat to human existence itself, there is surprising evidence that when it comes to hurricanes, PBS’ Nova did a report that makes it clear that the greatest hurricane of all time occurred over 200 years ago.
Per their website, the following.
“Devastating hurricanes struck the U.S. mainland and Caribbean islands in 2017. But they weren’t the first. The Great Hurricane of 1780 took nine days to blast its way across the Caribbean, killing at least 20,000—the highest known death toll of any single weather event in history. What made this superstorm so deadly? To reconstruct its epic scale and investigate what made it so devastating, NOVA joins historians and storm sleuths as they track down clues in eyewitness chronicles, old ruins, and computer simulations. Their evidence points to a truly terrifying, 300-mile-wide storm—with wind speeds probably exceeding 230 miles an hour and 25-feet storm surges that demolished everything in their path. But just how unusual was the Great Hurricane? Diving into sinkholes off Barbados and squirming into caves in the Yucatan, NOVA’s experts recover traces of tempests stretching back over more than 1,000 years. The picture they paint is disturbing: mega-hurricanes were not only more frequent in the past but are likely to strike again in our near future, as climate change warms the oceans and fuels more intense hurricanes.”
Clarity on Climate Change, Because it Impacts Manufactured Housing
Since there has been weather to report by humans, the climate has always changed on earth and always will. There has been global warming and global cooling that predated the industrial era by centuries or millennia. The phrase is so broad, it lacks the clarity of ‘man made global warming,’ which is de facto disputed by the NOVA summary above.
For about 15 years, Florida had very little hurricane activity, in recent years, there has been more. Weather happens, climate changes, and as the Nova video reflects, there have been far worse storms before the modern industrial era.
Sure, human behavior impacts the environment. Sure, the environment impacts weather. But if well informed leaders believed what all that they say, why did the Obamas just spend millions on an ocean front property? Why did so many elites going to a climate conference in Europe this summer fly in private jets?
The Praeger University video tees up the topic of climate change by an expert.
But from a manufactured home specific vantagepoint, the top video online is one we produced several years ago, linked here. It has now surpassed half-a-million views on YouTube.
The updated version of that video is posted below. The next video uses clips from mainstream media, as well as third-party research done on hurricane force winds on properly installed manufactured homes. This is important for every industry professional to grasp. It visually drives home the point that Dr. Carson, or others who have thoughtfully studied the topic have made.
And you can direct your manufactured home shoppers worried about this issue to the linked report below. Other facts are linked from that report.
Programing Note:
As a closing note, it is always possible that power may go out in parts of Florida. As we are central Florida based, power outages may impact MHProNews. Stay tuned for updates.
That programing note completed, let’s close by saying that a large part of what our industry needs to return to greatness from years past could be summed up in two phrases.
- ‘Understand and enforce good federal laws that are already on the books.’
- Plus ‘Support educational efforts to the industry’s professionals and the public that is based upon third-party supported facts, evidence, and research.’
Which begs the questions. Why hasn’t the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) publicly, energetically, and consistently beat those drums, over and over, on those two themes? Or why does MHI think that one post about hurricanes and tornadoes on their website will do it for the years? How often does MHI promote their money-making events, once — or several times? Let those questions hang, as actions speak louder than words.
See the related reports below for more on MHLivingNews that you can share with the general public and/or your team mates. Take the proper precautions. Best wishes and prayers to all those in the storm’s path.
That’s your healthy morning dose of addictive and necessary insights found only here on MHProNews — your home for “News Through the Lens of Manufactured Homes and Factory-Built Housing,” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
Soheyla is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn here and here.
Related Reports:
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