Are manufactured homes more susceptible to damage from tornadoes and hurricanes?
There is no meteorological or scientific basis to thinking that manufactured homes attract tornadoes. In fact, the explanation for the abundance of reports of damage to manufactured homes from tornadoes is quite simple: manufactured housing is most abundant in rural and suburban areas where meteorological conditions favor the creation of tornadoes. It is estimated that approximately 40 percent of all tornadoes have winds in excess of 112 miles-per-hour and can exceed 200 miles-per-hour in extreme cases. Current building codes and practices, for either manufactured or site-built homes, are not designed to withstand severe tornadoes. A direct hit from a tornado will bring about severe damage or destruction of any home in its pathsite-built or manufactured. When it comes to hurricanes, valuable lessons were learned from the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. With winds in excess of 140 miles-per-hour, thousands of site-built and manufactured homes suffered extensive damage. Within w
