Sales have, in fact, boomed whenever safety improvements have increased the price of mobile homes. December 12, 1998. With regard to the issue of manufactured-housing safety during windstorms, the need for safe refuge is the primary issue. This need can't wait for the Legislature to mandate changes in the design and construction. Neither can it wait for the affordable cost of retrofitting homes for those at risk.
Most manufactured homes have a utility room for storage built adjacent to the home.
Strapping is a definite need for securing a manufactured home to the ground, but as witnessed in North Carolina after Hurricane Bertha, they may not assure a safe refuge with sufficient force winds. The cost of safety is hard to define, as is the timeliness. The dual use of the room would split the cost, and construction could be accomplished before February. The responsibility for safety ultimately rests with the homeowner. This would be an affordable start to surviving windstorms in a manufactured home, but as with any disaster, people need to plan what to do and then practice than plan.