Just a few added comments.
Most cities are primarily grounded in cement, the streets, sidewalks, buildings, etc. Houses and buildings are often built on a slab. Bricks, stone, concrete and steel, comprise much of the structure.
Since this article was published there has been some changes in the premanufactured housing industry. The structures themselves are built much sturdier than they once were (on average) but they are still NOT site built on concrete slabs and are usually just tied down with anchors and steel strap. This in of itself would make the structure more prone to destruction in a twister and/or high winds.
It is becoming more prevalent that “mobile homes” are required to be at least set on a slab or concrete “runners” which helps but in a bad tornado it doesn’t matter. I’ve seen actual concrete streets torn up from the force of a tornado.
Another thing to consider is the fact that zoning in many city communities don’t allow mobile homes and therefore these buildings are often required to be set in more rural neighborhoods. Thus endangering them even more than a regular site built home.
The idea that “God” hates trailer houses is just well… :dubious: at best.
also
I’m gonna have to look into that.
Now this may be just IMHO but living in Texas, we see a lot of tornadoes. I think, at least from here to Kansas, we tend to get a few more tornadoes than the rest of the country. I’ve been in several myself.
IMHO this should be expected considering the size of the state. But most are restricted to a relatively small section of the state. Granted they occur throughout the state but most occur in the northeast region and largely in rural areas. Since trailer parks are usually concentrated there would naturally be a high fatality ratio when compared to urban communities.
63% fatalities in other structures
I realize that this stat is probably disproportional in relation to the numbers of mobile homes verses other structures. It confirms the idea that manufactured houses are not tornado safe.
However, I’m not certain yet, that since tornadoes typically frequent rural areas more (for obvious reasons, there’s just more of it) there aren’t simply more trailer homes in their path which skew the stats somewhat.
Like I said, no argument as to whether they are less safe. Just to what degree.
Let’s just call it an update.
BTW Here’s an interesting site regarding disasters. http://www.fema.gov/hazards/tornadoes/tornadof.shtm
Another city to add to the list. Topeka, Kansas, June 8th, 1966. At eleven years of age, I was there. Went from the southwest corner of town to the northeast, right through the center. The state Capitol building had damage to its’ dome, and if it had gone just a few blocks further north, it would have taken out the downtown area. At that it clipped it’s southern edge. Washburn University was severely damaged, along with hundreds of businesses and thousands of homes. Judged by the F-scale, which wasn’t in existence then, it was an F-5.
user_hostile
I had actually read that in my pursuit of evidence. IIRC it was based on the average per square mile. The total numbers though were quite a bit less as were the damage figures. Not taking away from the fact that the UK does statistically have more twisters per square mile/kilo. on average.
I’d like to see a new Wizard of Oz set in … well you name a place. Hell, y’all may have done it already for all I know. Castles spinning in the sky…leprechauns and elves…hmm, maybe
Of course you may have a different stat in mind. I’ll read your cites and see.
The stats regarding “tornado alley” in the mid section of the US are why people flock there/here to study them. It’s quite common to have dozens at the same time on any given day during the season. The average on the US figures included HUGE areas which rarely see a tornado.
It’s probably more rare to have a day when there isn’t a tornado during peak season.
A friend of mine had his home damaged three times (finally destroyed) in ten years by twisters. He ultimately moved.
A list of cities wiped out by tornadoes would be interesting. Wichita Falls,Tx. comes to mind. Think I’ll look that up.
I didn’t intend to steal any thunder from you. It’s more a case that the common perception is that the mid-west to eastern US is the only one that has tornadic activity. I speak from experience of F0-F1 tornadoes that periodically hit Los Angeles (one hit only half a mile away from where I lived in 1983). My mother and sister-in-law saw a brief tornado touch down on the east side of Edna valley (south of the city of San Luis Obispo) back in the early 90’s.
Whatever the case, however, when I hear about tornadoes, I always think of “Tornado Alley” first when the location isn’t specified.
(Incidentally, I saw my first (and hopefully last) tornado near Dulles, Virginia just recently. It was two miles away [and was rated as a F1 as I recall], and as one would expect television, IMAX, or movies just can not impart the same real-life mixture of fear, concern, revulsion, and morbid curiosity of watching the funnel act like the proverbial 800 pound gorilla)
Maybe this is too naieve, but nobody has mentioned the obvious answer:
Trailers get hit by tornados more frequently than homes because more trailers are situated in tornado prone areas.
Why? Land value. Mobile homes are less expensive to replace than houses, and their owners tend to have lower incomes. So, mobile home owners seek out low value property on which to put their mobile homes. Tornados are pesky - home owners don’t want to build where tornados tend to go. So land values are lower.
Same applies for earthquakes (well, everywhere but California), mudslides, hurricanes, etc. You just hear more about tornados because they occur more frequently.
