Mobile Home Listings & News

New mobile homes would have weather-alert radios
The House bill is modeled on law in Indiana, where tornado killed 20 in one home park



WASHINGTON — All new manufactured homes would have to come with a weather-alert radio under legislation introduced in the House.

"I was almost stunned that such a wonderful idea as this, that we hadn't done it before," said one sponsor, Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.

Named for a 2-year-old boy killed in a tornado in Indiana in 2005, C.J.'s Home Protection Act would change the federal safety standards for manufactured homes and make the industry pay for the receivers and their installation before the homes are delivered.

"I say it makes the mobile home that much more valuable," Bachus said Thursday.

The legislation, introduced June 20 but not yet set for debate, was initiated by C.J. Martin's parents, who lost three family members in the 2005 storm that killed 25 people, 20 of them in the same mobile home park.

"It's important for me to do this. I believe in this," Kathryn Martin said. "If my family had that warning, they would've been here today. This just makes sense."

The bill is modeled after a similar state law recently approved in Indiana.

It was introduced by U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., who at the time was the sheriff who responded to the scene where C.J. died.

"It's a public safety issue, not a Big Brother issue, and it's not us trying to force things on people," Ellsworth said. "It's trying to give families ... that extra little chance, an extra few moments."

The receivers cost between $20 and $200, according to the National Weather Service, depending on the features, the manufacturer and the retailer.

A spokesman for the industry took issue with the bill singling out manufactured homes.

"We support broadening the legislation to cover every occupied structure located in areas prone to severe wind events such as tornadoes and hurricanes," said Bruce Savage, a spokesman for the Manufactured Housing Institute, a national industry organization.


Expected opposition

Bachus, who several years ago helped pass a law allowing federal grants to be used for storm shelters in manufactured-housing communities, said he was expecting industry opposition.

"If you have a basement, it offers a very good chance of protection. If you have an interior room, it offers good protection, particularly an interior bathroom," Bachus said. "And a mobile home just doesn't have any of those things."

About 20 million Americans live in manufactured homes, according to the proposed legislation. The bill also cites a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that the fatality rate for residents of mobile homes is more than 10 times greater than for permanent homes.

"If you've got a shelter and you've got a warning, this is the final piece of the puzzle," Bachus said.

In addition to being a leading state in the construction of manufactured housing, Alabama has about 320,000 in use, representing about 16 percent of all housing in the state.