Posted on 04/13/2008 2:28:21 PM PDT by Lorianne
GULFPORT, Miss. — After the federal government announced in February that it would no longer use travel trailers to house the victims of future disasters, there was an initial sense of relief along the hurricane-scarred Gulf Coast.
The flimsy little white boxes are unpleasant to live in and tainted with toxic formaldehyde fumes. And they cost the federal government billions of dollars.
But that relief quickly turned to exasperation when it became clear that the government did not have an immediate backup plan. Without the trailers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has no reliable way to rush immediate shelter to thousands of victims of an earthquake, or a wildfire, or another catastrophic hurricane.
Though FEMA is considering several new ideas, including a so-called panelized home partially built at a factory, the agency’s effort to develop a trailer replacement has not impressed many housing experts.
Here in Gulfport, the state has designed and built what are known as the Mississippi Cottages — skinny but sturdy little houses that can be seen lined up by the hundreds in a staging area here.
But while the cottages are the only alternative that has been fully tested and appear popular with those who live in them, they have proved hard to place because of local government resistance. And they were produced through an effort that FEMA may have a hard time replicating.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has installed more than 2,000 of them throughout southern Mississippi, and plans to put in 3,500.
But local governments in Mississippi have resisted the cottages. They fear people who get cottages will simply live in them and not rebuild their houses, said Mike Womack, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
“They’re too nice,” he said. “I’ve heard this over and over again.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
...”unpleasant to live in and tainted with toxic formaldehyde fumes”....
Are these being imported from China too, or are our standards so low that living in toxic formaldehyde fumes is common place?
lets face it... if they don't have a job and home by now, they prolly never had one and never will.
The flimsy little white boxes are unpleasant to live in and tainted with toxic formaldehyde fumes. And they cost the federal government billions of dollars.
Unfortunately these same trailers while perfectly good for camping. Well that was before most of them were busted up and damaged by the ingrates who lived in them post Katrina. After costing the federal government (Abused Taxpayers) thats us billions of dollars. They are now scheduled to be destroyed. In Campbellsville,Ky hundreds of these post Katrina trailers sit on the lot of the former Fleetwood homes camper manufacturing plant waiting to be destroyed. Sadly they cant be sold or reused they must under government rules be destroyed. Stupid government bureaucracy.
Well, given that all the candidates (and Bush too) wants to put the US taxpayer on the hook for reckless mortgage lending, and foreclosures are everywhere, how about using those housing units for any emergency, at no additional cost (other than the multi-hundred-dollar-bailout cost to the taxpayer, already slated to be paid)?
Really? They have to be destoyed?
How odd. Why?
If you lived in South Mississippi, you could drive up I-59 until you approach the exit for a town named Purvis. Look to the left and you’ll see thousands of those little white FEMA trailers. My wife and I wonder what will become of them. I’m betting that they will be crushed, thrown into several huge piles and burned. Our taxpayer dollars???
That is outrageous!!!!!!!
Look at those things! The Government cant value engineer the heck out of those things!
We are paying for that-
I am writing a giant check for my freaking taxes and the Government/Fema is pissing away money on the most expensive possible solution for “Temporary Emergency Housing” as can be conceived.
We need a Tax revolution in this Country in a big way!!!!
-Rant NOT Off !
Don’t worry, FEMA camps are being created even as we speak.
The feds will have to contract the crushing of the trailers at a cost per trailer greater than their purchase price. And the winning bidder will have to agree that all of the parts go to scrap, no resale allowed.
Submit your environmentally friendly bid now. You will receive a prompt reply in five years. maybe.
1. Any newly built trailer, assembled with formaldehyde based adhesive will smell like (gasp!) formaldehyde for a period of time. It is unpleasant, but only toxic in certain circumstances (such as; the doors and windows on the trailer won't open after you have entered, and you're stuck inside until you die). It will also "air out" within a relatively short period of time.
2. Note: The picture shown with the posting is of the “Mississippi Cottages”.
3. Relying on the Federal Government for you survival is not the best plan you can have. Relying on the State, County, or local government is not the best plan B. They can be helpful, but you and your family should have a plan that relies on personal responsibility.
4. “FEMA’s effort to develop a trailer replacement has not impressed many housing experts”, is just another example of the NYT’s contacting the usual “the Government isn't building enough housing for the poor” fake experts. This “unbiased” NYT reporter would probably be shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out that mobile homes make up (I believe), about 65% of the existing housing in Mississippi, as has been the case for many years. They would probably be shocked to realize that mobile homes within so many miles of the coast (50, I think) must meet high wind specifications.
5. If the Federal Government is going to give out free “Mississippi Cottages” that are just “too nice” to worry about rebuilding the old casa, ummmm, I don't know, but maybe, just maybe, some folks would just take the easy route?
6. If Leslie really thinks that Mississippi is going to take advice on emergency planning from the NYT, she may be in for a real surprise.
7. I know that my "emergency planning" does not expect the Government to use taxpayer dollars from other U.S. Citizens to care for my family, provide housing, etc. From watching the post-Katrina actions here along the Mississippi Gulf coast, I believe that the majority of others living in this state don't either.
I see technology coming to the rescue in several ways.
To start with, the US military has discovered a great, well built and available habitation, that with minimal effort can be made into a comfortable emergency shelter.
Metal shipping containers.
The US has a vast number of such containers just sitting around. They can be quickly modified into high quality, “disposable” shelters for short term use after a disaster.
First dig a narrow trench. Lay PVC pipe for sewage, fresh water, and electrical wiring. Place the shipping containers over the pipe outlets. Inside the container you have a toilet/shower/sink in the back. Electrical light and a socket or two for appliances. Importantly, then you cover the shipping container with dirt, as insulation.
This means reasonably good dwellings for thousands of people for up to a few months. Field kitchens, field hospitals, a field laundry, a communications and government center. It is exceptionally cheap and fast.
As disasters go, Katrina had about 1 million evacuees. But in the Los Angeles Port area alone, there are at least a million excess shipping containers. If Los Angeles or San Francisco was to be hit with a massive Earthquake, several federally managed campsites in central California could adapt thousands of these shipping containers in just a few days.
This would give everyone involved at least a few months to come up with alternatives.
The plans for these houses are available through Lowes. I think they’re cute and would love to have one.
I wonder how people in Florida were able to survive in these FEMA trailers?
The FedGov put trailers into Valdez Alaska after the 1964 earthquake/tsunami as temp housing.
People are still living in them today...44 years later.
Give someone a free palce to live and, gasp, they will live in it.
Shotgun shacks are the norm for the AO. Let’em live in em. A slum is slum is a slum after all.
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