Why would a significant tornado only strip the front end and part of the roof off this mobile home, while leaving it basically in place? The mobile home was not your usual, unanchored, free-flying wind toy. It had been secured into concrete footings, using steel cables and ties. Meanwhile, the unanchored house to the left was pushed almost completely off its foundation, as shown in the previous picture. Notice the lack of damage to the rear of the mobile home; while the outer walls peeled off the front room. The house slid nearly into the mobile home, stopped there, acted as a windbreak, and sheltered all but the front of the mobile home from the westerlies along the south edge of the tornado. In effect, the house sacrificed itself to save most of the mobile home. I’ve never seen such a strange sequence in tornado damage, before nor since.
2 ENE Farmer SD (31 May 98) Looking NE
43.7318, -97.6368