FEMA ordered to resume Katrina payments

NF Reporter · 11-29-2006, 05:40 PM

AP - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration Wednesday to immediately resume housing payments for thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

More...

waltky · 08-29-2007, 12:43 AM

Gulf states still struggling...

Two Years Later: Katrina's Economic Impact
Aug. 28, 2007 - The Region's Economy Is Recovering, but Slowly

Quote:

When the storm made landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005, no one knew how vast the devastation would be. The near total loss of New Orleans and the counties surrounding the grand Creole city was not a regional tragedy, it was a national one, with long-term economic costs to every American. n the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, oil and gasoline prices spiked, as nearly a third of the nation's refineries and the entire domestic oil production of the Gulf of Mexico were shut down.

Retail gas prices rocketed up 46 cents in a single week to a new nominal record high. Almost immediately, the American consumer started cutting back. Economists say that the storm likely took a full percentage point out of the U.S. gross domestic product in the quarter immediately after the storm. But nationally, the American economy recovered fairly quickly. The oil infrastructure was back up and running at near pre-Katrina levels in months and retail gas prices dropped to their pre-storm level by the end of October.

"The U.S. economy rebounded from Katrina, although the region hit by the storm has not, demonstrating, once again, how amazingly resilient our economy can be," Dan Laufenberg, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial, told ABC News on the first anniversary of the storm. In the region directly affected by the storm, thousands lost their jobs and were forced to move to other cities.

MORE

See also:

Is New Orleans Safe? Will It Ever Be?
Aug. 28, 2007 - Will a $15 Billon Rebuilding Program Be Enough to Save New Orleans?

Quote:

After $1.7 billion worth of work on a patchwork of levees, pumps, flood walls, canals and floodgates, New Orleans as a whole remains alarmingly vulnerable to another Katrina-like catastrophe, according to scientists and engineers who have studied the improvements and residents, politicians and watchdogs who have spoken to ABC News. "Is it safe?" asked Roy Dokka, professor of civil engineering at Louisiana State University. "It's safer, not safe. It's better than what we had before Katrina, but is isn't bulletproof."

Two years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' flood protection system remains a tangled paradox of hope and dread, strong and weak spots, reality and fantasy. Billions are flowing into the city's infrastructure coffers, and relentless scrutiny and testing has taught the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers some valuable lessons, but no one knows whether the massive and ongoing rebuilding efforts will outrun the next major storm. Meanwhile, the city is slowly sinking while the sea is rising, and the state's wetlands barriers are disappearing faster than Louisiana could hope to rebuild them, experts say.

"Pre-Katrina, we weren't safe at all," said Oliver Houck, an environmental law professor at Tulane Law School. "We just thought we were. Are we safer than that [now]? Clearly. … But better than poor ain't great. And we are years away from being even good, much less great." There seems to be a consensus that this is not where anyone wanted to see New Orleans two years after Hurricane Katrina.

Castle Walls

waltky · 01-31-2008, 04:37 AM

FEMA buyback...

FEMA offers to buy back tainted homes
Jan. 30, 2008 -- Dangerous formaldehyde levels in thousands of trailers have prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repurchase the auctioned Hope, Ark., homes.

Quote:

The 10,839 mobile homes auctioned off by FEMA, which were originally intended for hurricane Katrina evacuees, have been cited for exposing residents to dangerous levels of formaldehyde gas, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., reported Wednesday.

"Literally thousands of people were exposed to the toxic chemical because of the negligence of the government," said a Sierra Club spokeswoman who helped conduct air-quality testing on FEMA mobile homes.

This month, FEMA reportedly mailed notification of its offer to repurchase the homes at their full selling price after citing concerns about formaldehyde dangers in the homes.

Source

waltky · 05-07-2008, 11:47 PM

Mayor wants residents out of Katrina trailers...

Mayor wants FEMA trailers cleared out
Wed., May. 7, 2008 - About 5,700 trailers remain in New Orleans almost three years after storm

Quote:

Lingering fears about formaldehyde fumes inside federally issued trailers and the impending hurricane season has Mayor Ray Nagin pushing to empty thousands of the structures, intended as temporary housing after Katrina. With the third anniversary of Katrina coming up Aug. 29, the push is the first for the city, where most of the remaining trailers sit on private property as residents continue to rebuild their homes.

"We need to get everybody out," Nagin said. "We need to find out if anybody's health has been harmed and how do we deal with that, and find the housing that's necessary so these people can get their lives together." Nearly 5,700 trailers remain in New Orleans, most on the private property of residents who lost their homes to Katrina. "I want to be gone as much as anybody," said K.C. King, whose home was heavily damaged by Katrina and later demolished. He said he has been dealing with a series of contractor delays in rebuilding.

Other housing options possible

Federal, state and local efforts are under way to assist families with housing needs. It's probable that some families now in trailers will end up in hotels or apartments, at least temporarily. But Nagin, in an interview late last week, said he has no choice but to push an end to use of the trailers, given health concerns and the June 1 start of the hurricane season. The tough stance is a post-Katrina departure for Nagin. Until now, he has refused to pressure residents in trailers because of issues including a lack of affordable housing and problems with them getting timely rebuilding grants or enough money to finish building their homes.

In a letter to President Bush in late February, Nagin wrote that a federal plan to move people from trailers to apartments and hotels over concerns about formaldehyde fumes would lead to a "second great displacement" of New Orleans residents. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been criticized for its response to concerns about high levels of formaldehyde fumes in such homes used by victims of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. About 24,600 travel trailers and mobile homes remained occupied in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the agency has stepped up efforts to move residents.

Fears about impending hurricane season

waltky · 07-03-2008, 01:07 AM

Particle board the formaldehyde source...

Pressed wood released formaldehyde in trailers-CDC
Wed Jul 2, 2008 WASHINGTON - Pressed wood products such as particle board are the main source of irritating formaldehyde fumes in trailers used to house disaster victims, according to a U.S. government report to be released on Wednesday.

Quote:

Such temporary housing should be designed with better ventilation, the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests, and current health and safety standards may not be enough to protect people.

"Even though construction materials meet standards ... you have to be a little bit careful about how you use those construction materials. You could end up fostering high levels of formaldehyde," said CDC spokesman Glen Nowak in a telephone interview.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said 15,000 people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005 are still living in such trailers. FEMA spokesman James Kaplan said a few dozen mobile homes were being sent to people displaced by flooding in Iowa, but they had been tested for low formaldehyde levels.

The CDC contracted with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California to cut open several trailers and measure concentrations of formaldehyde and other irritating chemicals known as volatile organic compounds.

More UPDATE 1-Pressed wood released formaldehyde in trailers-CDC | Reuters

waltky · 07-10-2008, 01:33 AM

Congress investigating Gulf Stream...

Makers of Katrina Trailers Grilled by Congress
July 9, 2008 - Panel Chairman Waxman: No One Looked Out for Health of Storm Victims

Quote:

Manufacturers of the trailers provided to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina were criticized today by lawmakers who demanded to know why temporary homes exposed storm victims to unsafe levels of formaldehyde. On Wednesday, California Democrat Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his investigation found that the government's leading supplier of the trailers, Gulf Stream Coach Inc., knew about the public health dangers and did nothing about them. Waxman's investigation also found that four of the 11 occupied trailers tested by the trailer manufacturer had formaldehyde present at a level that is sufficient for medical monitoring.

Formaldehyde, a chemical widely used in building materials, can cause a variety of adverse health effects at high levels, such as watery eyes, burning in the eyes, nose and throat, nausea, coughing, wheezing and rashes, as well as triggering asthma attacks. "No one was looking out for the interests of the displaced families living in FEMA trailers," Waxman said. "FEMA failed to do its job, and the trailer manufacturers took advantage of the situation. "The health of thousands of vulnerable families was jeopardized," he said.

Today's hearing was the latest in a long string of criticisms over how the government managed Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Not only has the government been slammed for responding too late when the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005, but today, the committee released more findings about how it also supplied the region's newly homeless residents with trailers with dangerously high levels of formaldehyde. According to the investigation, Gulf Stream employees manufacturing the trailers complained about the use of materials with a "foul" and "very strong chemical odor" that was "just overwhelming."

More ABC News: FEMA Trailer Company Under Fire