Congressmen Introduce Bill To Require Future Mobile Homes To Be Equipped With Weather Radios

June 21, 2007: Ellsworth Introduces CJ’s Home Protection Act

WASHINGTON - Rep. Brad Ellsworth was joined by Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Dennis Moore (D-KS) in introducing legislation requiring manufactured and mobile homes to be equipped with weather radios to warn residents of severe weather. Ellsworth, Bachus, and Moore joined tornado survivor and advocate Kathryn Martin in unveiling CJ's Home Protection Act during a Capitol Hill press conference.

"As Vanderburgh County Sheriff, I saw firsthand the destruction these storms bring to the families and communities they touch," said Ellsworth. "This bill is about public safety. The CJ's Home Protection Act is designed to ensure inhabitants of mobile and manufactured homes have warning when violent weather is about to strike so they can take action to protect themselves," said Rep. Ellsworth.

CJ's Home Protection Act would change the Federal manufactured home construction and safety standards to require every manufactured home delivered for sale to be supplied with a weather radio. Weather radios provide immediate broadcasts of severe weather warnings and civil emergency messages, including tornado and flood warnings, AMBER alerts for child abductions, and chemical spill notifications. Prices vary from $20-$80.

"Severe weather doesn't distinguish between Republicans and Democrats. It doesn't care whether you live in Indiana or Kansas or Texas or Alabama," said Ellsworth. "We are coming together because we believe that if this prevents just one mother from losing her son, a $30 weather radio is not too much to ask."

The bill is named after CJ Martin, a two-year-old boy, whose life was taken by an F3 tornado in southwest Indiana in 2005. His mother, Kathryn, turned her grief into a state-wide advocacy campaign that resulted in an Indiana law requiring NOAA Weather Radios be installed in all new mobile and manufactured housing, which then prompted the federal initiative.

SOURCE: Press Release from the office of Rep. Brad Ellsworth - Indiana

Note from John Elwell: Since many of our residents and my customers here in Florida reside in mobile homes, this legislation seems like a low cost way of giving owners some added protection. Considering how cheap these radios are in relationship to the price of the home, I am surprised that that the mobile home manufacturers have not done this already on their own initiative. Since this only will apply to future homes, it is a good idea for owners of older mobiles to think about getting their own weather radios. Not a bad investment!