Nowhere to Hide: More mobile home parks complying with state law

While Wednesday’s gloomy weather brought mostly rain, severe weather season is already underway in Minnesota.

In Alexandria, emergency managers are making sure two mobile home parks are ready to protect residents if and when a tornado hits.

Minnesota is the only state in the country with a law requiring mobile home parks to offer storm shelters for residents, or to have an evacuation plan.

But in 2017, 5 INVESTIGATES found that often people living in mobile home parks had nowhere to hide because dozens of parks around Minnesota were violating that law.

Nowhere to Hide: Despite state law, mobile home residents often left unprotected

Since then, however, more and more parks have come into compliance, and two in Alexandria are about to be added to that list.

Hustad’s mobile home park in Alexandria doesn’t have a storm shelter. So under state law, it is required to have an official evacuation plan on file with the Minnesota Department of Health.

Mobile Home Park Storm Shelters Map

Without an official plan in place, resident Pat Quiram said everyone living at Hustad’s does their own thing during severe weather – meaning some leave, some stay.

"I don’t remember any paper coming around saying exactly what to do," Quiram said. "I’ve been here quite a while."

"They didn’t know where they should go – if they had shelter or what the plan was," said Alexandria Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Management Jeff Karrow.

Karrow said without an official evacuation plan, residents like Quiram could be in danger if a tornado were to hit.

So Karrow worked with Douglas County Emergency Management and Hustad’s to come up with this plan, which lays out what residents should do and where they should go during severe weather.

"You can hang (the plan) on the refrigerator, look at it, communicate it to your family members, and pre-plan so you don’t say ‘Oh no, what do we do now," Karrow said.

The Viking City mobile home park in Alexandria lacked a shelter and official evacuation plan too.

But there’s now an official plan for the people who live at Viking City as well.

The Alexandria City Council is expected to approve both plans at its meeting on Monday. Following approval, the plans will be submitted to the Minnesota Department of Health.

"I think this is a very good education and outreach to get people saying ‘At least I can’t stay here. Here are my options I can go to to keep me and my family safe,’" Karrow said.

Karrow said the owners of Hustad’s are open to building a permanent shelter for residents.

But until that happens, Quiram says she’s just glad to have a plan.

"I think it’s an excellent first step," Quiram said. "There are a lot of kids here and they need to be kept safe."