FEMA trailers and Hope
Submitted by Arky Sue on February 16, 2006 - 7:56pm.
Soapbox
Five and a half months after Katrina hit the gulf coast 10,770 fully furnished FEMA mobile homes sit unused in Hope, Arkansas at the airport in a field and on all but one of the runways. The Federal Government is paying $25,000 per month to store the trailers there.
With the rainy season at hand, some local officials feared many units would sink into the mud. Not to worry though. FEMA plans to lay down a 290-acre bed of gravel for them to rest on, at a cost of $6 million.
According to testimony in the Senate hearings on Katrina, Chertoff said the problem was that federal regulations prevented the placement of these trailers in a flood plain. Asked about this by Sen. Pryor, Chertoff stated that the regulations in question are FEMA regulations. Can FEMA not change this for the New Orleans area? Why buy a bunch of mobile homes that won't meet regulations that would allow the Katrina victims to use these? Meanwhile, 12,000 or so Katrina victims are being evicted from various hotels around the country.
(snip) Why haven't the trailers been sent to those who need them? Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), a graduate of Hope High School, asked that question as he toured the airport Thursday with FEMA officials. "It cost $431 million and they're all sitting there, 75% of them literally parked in a cow pasture," Ross said in a telephone interview. "They are brand-new, all totally furnished, and yet people have been living in tents for five months in a row. It just makes you sick to your stomach." (/snip} Link.
FEMA trailers sit in Hope and Katrina victims sit in hope....but now hope is sinking in the mud in Hope.. Why, why should this be?
on CNN yesterday. The mobile homes seem to be in good shape, so the money should be spent to get them to the people who need them, not to park them in Hope, AR. There are places in LA where the rules will permit them.
Better to be sinking in 'despair' I would think...also heard that their initial destination was not to a flood plain area. Would it be logical to expect then, that the trailers be moved to a non-flood plain region in LA or MS, etc. <----step (1 --- >and then move the homeless into the the trailers <--- step (2?
...Or preferable to evict them from the hotels and into the streets of N'orleans? Is that 'objectionable' because whatthehell, it makes too much sense?
How great must our failure be until we turn in panic and disgrace to a Man of Honor? - Quigley
across the U.S.!!! 
Get the trailers to these people!
Unitary Executive Theory is NOT a theory anymore!
To spend $6 million to make a 290 acre gravel parking lot for the trailers is crazy! And after the trailers are finally moved...are they just going to leave the gravel there? How long will it take to install the gravel? Sounds to me like the trailers are not going anywhere anytime soon. Sickening.
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NOT A CHANCE!!!!
what a sad and horrible joke our government is. Totally move-in ready homes sitting there while unknown numbers of displaced residents are floundering and homeless...