None of the persons we interviewed used NOAA weather radio on the day of the tornadoes. While conducting the first study in Georgia and Alabama in 1994, we were surprised by the common occurrence of cars or pickup trucks that remained upright with little damage near mobile homes that were destroyed and the mobile home occupants killed. After careful thought, it did not seem so surprising. After all, a modern car has a low center of gravity, a streamlined form, a protective interior, and is designed to encounter strong winds and protect occupants in case of a roll-over and other crashes. Rural mobile home residents have few options when a tornado threatens.
Underground shelters are rare and a sturdy building for shelter is usually some miles away.
Mobile home residents recognize the legendary vulnerability of their dwellings in wind storms. However, when the tornado siren starts blowing or the Weather Channel screen turns red, few are willing to gather the family and leave their mobile home to run outside into a severe thunderstorm with heavy rain, lightning, hail, and flying debris to lie down in a water-filled ditch to await a tornado. They tell us such actions are counterintuitive. Following our field observations in 1994, a reasonable option for those in mobile homes without nearby shelter seemed to be to drive to one. In light of NWS and Red Cross recommendations that mobile home residents and vehicle occupants exit and lie down outdoors when a tornado threatens, we sought previous studies on the relative safety of being in a vehicle compared to being outdoors that supported those recommendations.