The Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers brought in to temporarily house displaced homeowners in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have finally been fully vacated, with the last of the trailers removed on Sunday, days after its residents returned to their rebuilt home. In the wake of the tragic August 2005 hurricane, FEMA distributed tens of thousands of trailers, a bright light in an infamous dark period of bungling on the part of that agency. But even this quick fix had some serious problems, including some 120,000 trailers tainted with dangerous formaldehyde. After spending $2B on the toxic trailers themselves, the government was spent an additional $160M to maintain the unusable trailers, until they were sold on the open market in 2006 and later used to house cleanup crews mitigating the BP oil spill. Clearly, Louisiana is happy to see these trailers go.
· FEMA moves last Katrina victims out of trailer [Chicago Tribune]
· Banned Trailers Return for Latest Gulf Disaster [NYT]
Filed under: