We blasted mobile homes with hurricane-force winds to test how they fail – and found clues for making affordable housing safer

Hurricane-force winds from the Wall of Wind test facility rolled mobile homes, showing where their anchoring systems fail. Margi Rentis/Florida International University

It’s 9:15 in the morning. The wind is roaring at 110 miles per hour (177 kph); the sound is deafening. Dust swirls through the air. We are watching a single-wide manufactured home rock back and forth, as it is pounded by turbulent wind.

Then, in an instant, the screws shear off and the entire unit tumbles backward, rolling two full revolutions before it stops.