LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — While everyone’s eyes were focused on the skies Wednesday, a mother living in a mobile home park was focusing on where to go in the event of a tornado.
Brittni Cooper has spent the last eight years living in her park.
With each tornado season that passes with no basement or secure space, she began to worry about her family’s safety.
“After a Google search,” Cooper said. “Nothing pops up of where you can go for something like that.”
With children and pets, she wants peace of mind for any future situations.
“It’s kind of scary knowing that there’s nowhere to go other than maybe another public place,” she said.
While Cooper’s kids are normally in school where they’re safe, there’s still the threat of storms after class is dismissed.
“If it does happen at night, we’re prepared,” Cooper said. “Making sure that they’ve got their shoes where they’re readily available to them in case we’ve got to get out and go fast.”
While Cooper has shoes ready, she still does not know where to go nowadays.
“It’s usually Walmart or Meijer or something like that when they were open 24 hours. And they’re not anymore,” Cooper added.
Eaton County Emergency Manager Ryan Wilkinson said mobile home parks bear the brunt when it comes to these types of storms.
“Mobile homes are a little bit more unique in that they don’t provide some safer shelter areas, particularly, when all four of their walls are exterior walls and could be subject to flying debris,” he said.
However, Wilkinson added there are things you could do to ensure safety. He said that moving to the bathroom, specifically the bathtub is a safe place.
“If you can, maybe even cover yourself with a mattress or something that could be able to shield yourself from any sort of debris should you have any sort of issue with your actual mobile home itself,” he said.
If something were to come your way, Wilkinson recommends taking protective action and covering oneself instead of looking for ways to escape.
