The Issue

I am a wife, mother, and mobile home resident in Moscow Mills, Missouri. When tornado sirens go off, I grab my girls, crowd into our hallway bathroom, cover us with a crib mattress, and hope for the best. That is our plan. And it goes directly against what the National Weather Service tells us to do—because we have no other option.

Mobile home residents make up about 6% of the U.S. population but account for 54% of all indoor tornado-related deaths. You are 15 to 20 times more likely to die in a tornado living in a mobile home than in a site-built house. Missouri is high-risk tornado territory and yet offers zero state-level financial assistance for individual manufactured housing residents to install storm shelters, while other states have programs in place.

Storm shelters cost thousands of dollars. Financing requires strong credit that many of us do not have. The people who need protection the most are the ones the system makes it hardest to help.

A Missouri state-funded storm shelter grant program would change that. It would give working families, seniors, veterans, and low-income residents in manufactured housing a real path to protection—not just a prayer. According to FEMA, every dollar invested in hazard mitigation saves six dollars in future disaster costs. This is not just the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do.

I have spent months advocating for this change—through a published article, a local news appearance, meetings with county emergency management, and conversations with our mayor and fire chief. The response has made one thing clear: thousands of Missouri families are living this same reality and waiting for someone to act.

As a professional weather writer, I know these statistics better than most—and I know that knowing them is not enough without action. You can read my full story and see my KSDK News feature here:

tinyurl.com/weather-website-story 

tinyurl.com/ksdk-story

The people living in manufactured homes across Missouri are not a forgotten demographic—they are vital members of our communities. They are hardworking families building toward something, using affordable homeownership as a stepping stone to a stronger financial future. They are elderly residents who have lived in their homes for decades and built their lives there. They are veterans who served this country and came home looking for an affordable, practical place to put down roots. They are single parents, young couples, and people who have faced setbacks and are doing everything right to get back on their feet. They are families actively choosing to save money on housing so they can afford to support their families. Choosing a manufactured home is not a failure. It is a financial decision that millions of Americans make deliberately and often unapologetically. These families deserve the same shot at surviving a tornado as anyone else. The kind of home you can afford should never determine whether you live or die in a storm.

Please sign this petition and help us push the Missouri state government to establish a funded storm shelter assistance program for manufactured housing residents. Share it with everyone you know. And if you live in Missouri, call your state representative and ask them where they stand on this issue.

No family should have to hope a bathroom wall holds. Not in Missouri. Not anywhere.