Cherrylula
02-13-2006, 09:08 AM
check this shit out, there are over 10k FEMA trailers sitting at an Arkansas airport as they are unable to find places for them in Louisiana because regulations do not allow them to place trailers on a flood plain, so anywhere that had water in LA they can't put a trailer. So basically that is a big reason why people are still living in tents.
But in the meantime, FEMA is going to spend 6 million bucks on some gravel foundation for these unused trailers. Now when the Army Corps is begging for about that same amount to armor the levees how does this make sense??? Just fucking amazing.
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The Land of 10,770 Empty FEMA Trailers - link (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-trailers10feb10,0,3366834.story?track=mostemailedl ink)
At Uncle Henry's Smokehouse Bar B Que in Hope, Ark., the lunchtime crowd filled every table Thursday — all 10 of them. At City Hall, the phones were ringing off the hook. And out at the airport, a private pilot who just turned 45 said she didn't expect to live long enough to see things get back to normal.
All because of the latest example of how federal, state and local officials have responded to Hurricane Katrina. Time was, Hope was known primarily as the childhood home of President Clinton. Now it's Trailer Town, USA.
After the Aug. 29 storm left thousands homeless on the Gulf Coast, officials in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama began calling for trailers to provide temporary shelter. More than 100,000 were requested, and somebody decided to create holding areas for the trailers outside the hurricane zone.
Today, legions of wide-bodied mobile homes sit empty at Hope's Municipal Airport, a sprawling former military base. After all these months, storm victims can't seem to get the trailers, which are proving a mixed blessing to Hope and Arkansas.
"It just boggles the mind in this day and time," said Mark Keith, director of the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce. "There are 10,770 trailers at Hope Airport. That's one for every man, woman and child in Hope, with a few left over to send to Emmet, down the road."
... With the rainy season at hand, some local officials feared many units would sink into the mud. But FEMA plans to lay down a 290-acre bed of gravel for them to rest on, at a cost of $6 million.
... 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."
FEMA says it has been stymied by federal regulations, such as one forbidding trailers to be positioned in flood plains — which rules out much of the area hit by Katrina — and by officials in Louisiana, where the need is greatest.
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SO, if the trailers cost 431 million dollars and 75% are sitting in a field rotting away, that's approximately 323 MILLION dollars gone to waste.
so hard to believe I almost want to type that again. Over 320 MILLION bucks in trailers going to waste.
But in the meantime, FEMA is going to spend 6 million bucks on some gravel foundation for these unused trailers. Now when the Army Corps is begging for about that same amount to armor the levees how does this make sense??? Just fucking amazing.
-----
The Land of 10,770 Empty FEMA Trailers - link (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-trailers10feb10,0,3366834.story?track=mostemailedl ink)
At Uncle Henry's Smokehouse Bar B Que in Hope, Ark., the lunchtime crowd filled every table Thursday — all 10 of them. At City Hall, the phones were ringing off the hook. And out at the airport, a private pilot who just turned 45 said she didn't expect to live long enough to see things get back to normal.
All because of the latest example of how federal, state and local officials have responded to Hurricane Katrina. Time was, Hope was known primarily as the childhood home of President Clinton. Now it's Trailer Town, USA.
After the Aug. 29 storm left thousands homeless on the Gulf Coast, officials in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama began calling for trailers to provide temporary shelter. More than 100,000 were requested, and somebody decided to create holding areas for the trailers outside the hurricane zone.
Today, legions of wide-bodied mobile homes sit empty at Hope's Municipal Airport, a sprawling former military base. After all these months, storm victims can't seem to get the trailers, which are proving a mixed blessing to Hope and Arkansas.
"It just boggles the mind in this day and time," said Mark Keith, director of the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce. "There are 10,770 trailers at Hope Airport. That's one for every man, woman and child in Hope, with a few left over to send to Emmet, down the road."
... With the rainy season at hand, some local officials feared many units would sink into the mud. But FEMA plans to lay down a 290-acre bed of gravel for them to rest on, at a cost of $6 million.
... 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."
FEMA says it has been stymied by federal regulations, such as one forbidding trailers to be positioned in flood plains — which rules out much of the area hit by Katrina — and by officials in Louisiana, where the need is greatest.
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SO, if the trailers cost 431 million dollars and 75% are sitting in a field rotting away, that's approximately 323 MILLION dollars gone to waste.
so hard to believe I almost want to type that again. Over 320 MILLION bucks in trailers going to waste.