Storm shelter available to residents at Holts Summit mobile home park
HOLTS SUMMIT, Mo. (KMIZ)
When Holt’s Summit resident Rey Dameron got a notification about the possibility of a storm rolling through the area he began to wait outside in the hopes of seeing "something cool."
“Got a message this morning saying that 11 o'clock it was supposed to be rolling through,” Dameron said. “I’ve been out here all day. where is it?”
Storms rolled through the Mid-Missouri area on Monday afternoon, with tornado warnings occurring in Cole and Osage counties that expired at 7 p.m.
Dameron is one of dozens of Holts Summit residents who live at a Seges Mobile Home Park. Living in a mobile home comes with its benefits, but protection from severe weather is not one of them.
According to the National Weather Service, those who stay in a manufactured home are 15-20% more likely to die during severe weather.
While Dameron likes to watch storms, he says would use the storm shelter on the property.
“If it’s rolling through and it’s going to actually cause danger to me and my family, yeah I'm going to dip underground,” Dameron said.
Missouri does not have any statewide requirements for storm shelters in mobile home parks. Seges Mobile Home Park is one of the few that does have a storm shelter for residents.
“In many mobile home area's, safe locations can be fire departments, schools, but find where you’re at and identify a fixed location,” said Rebecca Gordon, who is the executive director of the Central and Northern Missouri Chapter of the American Red Cross.
In 2022, 5.6% of the American population lived in a mobile home. The majority of those people don't have access to a storm shelter.
During the past 20 years, 39% of deaths caused by tornadoes were mobile-home residents according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Nicholas Gully and Bethany Jackson live together in Seges Mobile Home Park. They say they wouldn’t have used a storm shelter a few years ago but now they have a child, that thought process has changed.
“My thinking is a little bit different so of severe weather was to come in and we were in the path I would definitely use that for her safety and ourselves,” Gully said. “Trailer of course, high risk of being thrown out and stuff.”
“Before it was whatever happens, happens. But with the baby, it’s definitely something i consider now,” Jackson added.
Jackson has been living in Missouri for over 20 years. According to NOAA date, the Show Me State averaged 48 tornadoes a year from 1998-2022. Despite the risks, Jackson said she has yet to use the shelter.
In 2021, 104 people died in tornadoes in the U.S.; of those, 23 were living in a mobile home, according to the National Weather Service
Fortunately for the residents living in the mobile home park, they have access to a shelter at the park and one just a few blocks away behind the police station
