In the wake of the deadly tornadoes that ripped through Alabama last year, WSFA-TV in Montgomery, AL, like many in the media and in the National Weather Service (NWS), does not distinguish between pre-HUD Code homes and those built after 1976. However, Tommy Colley, who trains MH installers for the Alabama Manufactured Housing Commission (AMHC), says, “Case after case, we see site built homes on either side of a manufactured home that were blown away, but it’s still standing.” The second largest producer of MH in the nation, where some 700,000 people live in factory-built housing, Alabama does a complete 100 percent inspection of every manufactured home installed in the state. Although NWS Meteorologist Kevin Laws says, “No place is more dangerous than a mobile home,” Sherry Norris, Executive Director of the Alabama Manufactured Housing Association states many of the homes ravaged by the storms were pre-HUD Code homes. “Nothing can withstand the storms we have seen over the last year. That’s why we encourage everyone to find a shelter underground. It’s the same situation for a site built home,” she adds. MHProNews.com has learned officials do acknowledge the death toll and number of MH destroyed during the April storms were unusually low.
