New IL bill requires weather radios installed in recently built mobile homes

CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — A new bill in the Capitol aims to keep everyone a bit safer during severe weather, particularly those who live in mobile homes. Now, weather radios are required to be installed in newly manufactured mobile homes.

Ed Shimon, the warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, knows this is a crucial step, especially after the damage across Central Illinois last week .

“I’ve seen a lot of mobile home parks get hit just by chance. It’s very devastating,” Shimon said.

Plus, he said mobile homes aren’t safe during severe weather. There aren’t basements or strong interior rooms to seek shelter.

At Shadowwood Mobile Home Park in Champaign, some residents said they go somewhere else when tornadoes are nearby. For Eusebia Aldna, that means the Martens Center across the street.

“A lot of time safe shelter is somewhere else, not in their same location,” Shimon described.

He’s glad to see lawmakers take this step forward, inching closer and closer to keeping the community safe during a time that could change so many lives.

“They need to be safe right from the get-go,” Shimon said. “People who take residence in them can take solstice that they have a way to get warnings immediately upon the National Weather Service issuing them.”

During last week’s derecho, Bloomington saw gusts up to 72mph. Willard Airport in Savoy got up to 62mph. In Chicago, the National Weather Service has confirmed a record-breaking 27 tornadoes from those same storms.

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