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Posted on 03/11/2006 4:16:24 PM PST by Ellesu
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — After seeing row upon row upon row of mobile homes lined up at the Hope airport Saturday, Senate minority leader Harry Reid expressed dismay at the failure of President Bush's administration to put the trailers to use sheltering hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast.
"I'm terribly mystified, disappointed and ashamed for our country," the Nevada senator said after he and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., visited the site where the Federal Emergency Management Agency is storing the mobile homes, bought after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes of thousands of people in Louisiana and Mississippi.
"I can't imagine that we could could have a sea of 11,000 mobile homes sitting there, rotting, while people around the country can't find a place to live," Reid said.
FEMA has said that it has been unable to put the trailers to use because federal regulations prohibit placing them in flood plains, and many of those needing shelter after the hurricanes are in areas classified as flood-prone.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Maybe Dopey Harry instead of being a grandstanding media whore, go back to Washington and offer up legislation to get rid of the stupid regulation that prevents the Bush Administration from being allowed to USE the trailers.
Why not move the people to where the mobile homes are located.....hook up electricity and dig some latrines temporary or somethin?
Congressmen Want Trailers for Wildfire Victims
Friday, March 10, 2006
Two Oklahoma congressmen are calling on FEMA to make 150 of the approximately 10-thousand trailer homes sitting unused in Arkansas available to wildfire victims in their state. The trailers were originally meant for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Oklahoma Congressmen Dan Boren and Tom Cole made the request on behalf of state residents in need of housing because they lost their homes to wildfires which have burned more than half a million acres in Oklahoma since November 1st.
Boren said FEMA has already paid for the trailers, but they are just sitting in Arkansas. He said, "We have more than 300 Oklahoma families who have had their houses destroyed by these fires.
It just seems a natural fit." Cole said rather than allow the manufactured homes to sit unused and continue to deteriorate, they should be made available to those who need them.
Boren and Cole both made their request in a joint letter to acting FEMA director David Paulison.
He said that, after viewing the sea of trailers, he and Pryor — who has offered legislation to provide a temporary exemption from the flood-plain regulations — wrote a letter to Bush urging him to sign an executive order that would do the same thing, allowing the mobile homes to be put to use.
Reid said the letter told Bush that "you are able, with the signing of an executive order, of changing all this, and allowing these homes to be moved to where they're needed, including a floodplain."
Pryor's legislation isn't needed, Reid said, if Bush would act.
He's right in the midst of, and part of, federal bureaucracy that allows such things to take place, yet he acts as if he's surprised.
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This isn't about Bush sign an EO it's that the state and locals don't want the trailors in their area !
From what I've read, it's both.
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/articles/2006/03/02/local_news/news/news04.txt
Senator’s plan for trailers is plain
Thursday, March 2, 2006 9:55 AM CST
Waive restrictions to set up homes, Mark Pryor suggests
By DIONNE VICTOR
Texarkana Gazette
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., recently introduced legislation to bring the more than 10,000 FEMA mobile homes parked at Hope Municipal Airport to residents hit by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast.
The Hope Housing Act of 2006 requests FEMA to waive its regulations that prohibit placing homes in areas along flood plains in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Along with waiving the placement regulations, the act would protect FEMA from responsibility if these houses were damaged by another natural disaster and would require FEMA to publicize changes.
“This is an unusual situation; FEMA has overloaded the trailers,” Pryor said. “Unless they waive flood plain restrictions, there is no way the homes will be used.”
He called the legislation a common-sense approach to force FEMA to use taxpayer dollars already spent on the mobile homes.
“The bottom line is that we have had 10,700 mobile homes and here we are six months after the storm has occurred,” said Pryor.
He said having the mobile homes in areas where they are not being used is not helping the people they are meant to help. He said the waste of money is indicative of a much larger problem.
“It’s really become a symbol for what’s been going wrong in FEMA over the last few years,” Pryor said.
FEMA purchased the mobile homes for $475 million and may have to spend up to $7 million for gravel in order to protect the homes while they sit at the airport, he said.
FEMA purchased the mobile homes for $475 million and may have to spend up to $7 million for gravel in order to protect the homes while they sit at the airport, he said.
The temporary houses consist of mobile homes and trailers. But FEMA originally ordered homes that were built to its High Wind Zone 3 specifications, Pryor said.
“Basically, the bottom line is that FEMA ordered the wrong kinds of homes,” he said.
Pryor said a recent trip to New Orleans opened his eyes to what is missing in the city: the people. For the residents to go back, they must have housing.
“One thing that is very clear is the economic cycle has been broken and they need the government’s help to get their economy working again,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., who introduced similar legislation in the House, said the most recent legislation is timely since “FEMA is getting ready to evict 12,000 people that need these homes.”
He also addressed the need for the government to cut red tape and look at different ways to fix problems with housing.
“Under normal circumstances you would not want to place these homes in the flood zone, but these aren’t normal circumstances,” Ross said.
For example, he noted that a tent city in Mississippi has 80 tents set up and more than 100 families living there during the winter.
“FEMA needs to stop worrying about being blamed about something; they’ve had six months to take care of people and the best they have been able to do is people living in tents,” Ross said.
Although they can’t comment on pending legislation, FEMA officials said they are placing mobile homes whenever possible.
“We are putting mobile homes in the areas with flood plains where the local ordinances allowed us, like St. Bernard Parish,” said Rachel Rodi, a FEMA spokesman.
Rodi said these areas include locations where they had existing mobile home parks.
LOL!
Forgive me, but I can't resist.
"Troll a fifty dollar bill through a trailer park, ain't no telling what you'll find." Corporal CueBall.
Troll a Democrap through a trailer park and ain't no tellin' what sh*t you'll hear.
As Arnold says, "Why listen to losers"?
In other words, he's in his usual state of mind.
"FEMA has said that it has been unable to put the trailers to use because federal regulations prohibit placing them in flood plains, and many of those needing shelter after the hurricanes are in areas classified as flood-prone."
Getting hung by there own stupid laws. That is clasic.
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