PORTAGE, Mich. — Residents in the Pavilion Estates mobile home park near Portage returned to the scene of Tuesday night's storms, some picking up the few remaining pieces of their life as they search for a new place to live.
Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller reported late Tuesday night 176 homes or properties in Pavilion Township were damaged, 15-17 of which were completely destroyed. Up to 20 people were injured, but miraculously, no one lost their life.
According to the National Weather Service, mobile homes that are not appropriately tied down are vulnerable to 50 mile-per-hour winds. Tuesday night's twister was measured as an EF-2, meaning its winds were anywhere between 111-135 mph.
NWS also said those living in a mobile and manufactured homes are "15 to 20 times more likely to be killed in comparison to when you are in a permanent home."
John Allen, an Associate Professor of Meteorology at Central Michigan University, said, "I think the biggest danger is, you know, people in mobile homes have a lot of problems because nowhere is safe in a mobile home.”
There are not any basements. People are unsure where to take cover. There's no requirement for those communities to set up shelters for their residents in the event of severe weather or a tornado.
Those living in the Pavilion Estates told FOX 17 Wednesday maybe it's time for a change.
“The first thing when I got out of the van was everybody screaming, you know," said Angie Heath, who lost her mobile home in the tornado. "There was so many people screaming and it was just, yeah. You didn't know what was going on.”
That feeling of shock still hadn't left Heath 24 hours later.
She had just moved into her Pavilion Estates home 10 months ago, and within seconds, she watched it all get ripped away.
“Oh, my gosh. My windshield is gone. The front of my my van is just totaled. Our house is...we have to move out," Heath said. "There's no, there's no staying there. The roof is falling in and, yeah, everything is gone.”
In a moment where every second matters, Heath had to think quickly. She chose to take cover in her van with her son.
“That train noise is for real," she said. "I heard it, and so I yelled at him to get into the van. I had to yell at him about five times.”
Others, like Cameron Driscoll, who's lived there for 15 years, decided to evacuate for the tornadoes arrived.
"In our house, there really wasn't a safe option for five people," he said.
Better safe than sorry, Driscoll said. Sorry, that more isn't set up for their safety.
The Mobile Home Commission Act of 1987 has 24 pages outlining regulations for those communities — not a single requirement to protect residents during a tornado.
This follows the May 2022 tornado that tore apart a different mobile home community in Gaylord.
FOX 17 brought this up to John Lindley, the President & CEO of the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association. He responded with this statement:
"The manufactured housing industry shares your concerns about the safety of our residents, especially after the recent tornadoes. Although installing tornado shelters may seem like a viable solution, the tremendous costs required to construct these shelters would, unavoidably, be passed on to residents, significantly affecting the affordability of their homes. In addition, the fact that these shelters may never actually be used makes it difficult to justify the significant costs to residents. Any safety measure must support the common objective of addressing the affordable housing crisis in Michigan, ensuring our solutions do not inadvertently exacerbate the very issue we are striving to solve."
Governor Gretchen Whitmer addressed that concern during her tour of the Pavilion Estates community Wednesday.
“One of the interesting things that one of the folks from Portage said was that there were fewer homes that were lifted off their foundation because they did begin requiring the use of hurricane strips," she said. "I've never even heard the phrase before, but this is apparently an additional safety measure to help keep mobile homes on their foundation.”
Pavilion Estates residents said that's not enough.
“Maybe this feels like a rude thing to say, it does kind of feel like the bare minimum that could be instated," Driscoll said. "Like a storm, a storm cellar here at the front of the park and in the back of the park."
Heath added, "That's where everybody would have went. I'm sure. You know, that would have been awesome.”
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