Researchers from Florida International University (FIU) and the University of Kansas published preliminary results on Friday from a groundbreaking experiment: the first full-scale controlled test of prefabricated homes subjected to hurricane-force winds, whose findings indicate critical failures in anchoring systems that jeopardize millions of Americans.
The tests, described in an article authored by the researchers Elaina Sutley (University of Kansas) and Arindam Chowdhury (FIU), were conducted between May and June 2026 at the Wall of Wind facility at FIU in Miami, and not this Friday, the date when they were made public.
The publication of the research results takes on particular importance in the context of the landfall of Hurricane Isaías in the United States this Friday, at a point near Destin, Florida, around 9:30 p.m. (Miami time), with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h).
The hurricane, which had made landfall as a category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, rapidly decreased to category 1, after losing organization and intensity, but will still pose a threat to several regions of the country throughout the weekend.
The research team from FIU and the University of Kansas subjected three prefabricated homes provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to over 20 individual tests, with wind speeds ranging from 113 to 209 km/h, varying the anchoring system, wind zone, elevation, and orientation of the structure.
The most revealing moment occurred at 177 km/h. The researchers themselves described it as follows: "It is 9:15 in the morning. The wind howls at 177 km/h; the noise is deafening. Dust swirls in the air. We observe how a single-module prefabricated home sways back and forth, battered by the turbulent wind. Then, in an instant, the screws shear off, and the entire unit falls backward, completing two full rotations before coming to a stop."
That configuration mimicked the minimum installation standard applicable in states like Kansas, with approximately 40% of the anchors cut. In contrast, when the same structure was installed with steel straps and the more robust anchoring system—equivalent to the requirements of Wind Zone III—it remained relatively stable even at higher speeds.
The preliminary results are compelling: "Our preliminary findings reveal that the installation practices permitted by some states do not meet the minimum requirements of the federal code, and that many commonly used installation systems in the U.S. do not meet modern wind engineering standards," wrote Sutley and Chowdhury.
The federal code that regulates the construction of these homes —the HUD Code, Title 24 CFR Part 3280— has wind engineering standards dating back to 1988 and has not received a significant update in over three decades. Unlike codes for site-built homes, which are reviewed every three years, the regulations for manufactured homes also lack guidelines for earthquakes, wildfires, or tornadoes.
The tested homes had an important characteristic: they were manufactured with a strength equivalent to three times the requirement set by the federal code. The researchers caution that the results are preliminary and cannot be extrapolated as a guarantee of safety for all mobile homes on the market.
The experiment also has limits acknowledged by the team itself: the test isolated the danger of wind without simultaneously reproducing flooding or storm surge. "If this home had been tested under flooding, wind, and surge conditions, it might have failed sooner," Chowdhury noted.
More than 22 million Americans live in manufactured homes, the most common type of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, with a high concentration in the hurricane-prone Southeast. The state program My Safe Florida Home, which offers up to $10,000 to reinforce homes against hurricanes, explicitly excludes mobile and manufactured homes.
The team also developed a wind load reduction device that attaches to the roof gutter system to keep the tiles intact under extreme conditions and collaborated with the industry to test a new optimized anchoring system.
The researchers conclude that the problem is not inherent to the type of construction: “The results demonstrate that prefabricated homes can be designed and built to be both affordable and resistant to strong winds. In fact, some already are; it’s just not the norm.”
The team will announce more detailed analyses in the coming months, and the data will be shared with the federal agencies responsible for updating security codes.
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