Hot Items 2003Mobile homes and tornado fatalities studied
Half of tornado fatalities in the United States now occur in mobile homes, an increase from approximately 25 percent in the late 1970's, when information on the location of fatalities began to be collected. In 2002, 37 of the 55 total deaths occurred in mobile homes. This is in spite of the fact that only about seven percent of the population lives in mobile homes.
Using information from the U.S. Census Bureau on the fraction of mobile homes in each state, combined with the number of reported tornadoes since 1985 from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory has estimated that mobile home residents were killed at a rate 15 times higher than permanent home residents.
The potential exists for the fraction to continue to increase. Mobile home residency has risen steadily over the past 30 years, particularly in the southeastern U.S. According to the 2000 Census, more than 16 percent of housing units in Alabama and Mississippi were mobile homes and more than 20 percent in South Carolina. In 1990, those percentages were 13 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
Mobile home residents tend to have less access to information and fewer shared information systems (e.g., warning sirens). The problem of warning and sheltering mobile home residents has become the biggest obstacle to continuing to reduce death tolls from tornadoes.
8/14/2003