Monday, August 27, 2007
DOES THE RV INDUSTRY NEED TO PAY THE TAXPAYERS BACK?
RV Business
Friday, August 24, 2007
About 1,000 Louisiana families have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to move them out of government-issued trailers and mobile homes over concerns that the shelters are contaminated, FEMA officials said Thursday (Aug. 23).
The Associated Press reported that Jim Stark, director of FEMA's Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office, said the agency already has moved - or is moving - about 140 of the families into apartments at the agency's expense.
To accommodate others, FEMA has identified roughly 6,500 apartment units across the state that meet the agency's “fair-market value guidelines,” according to Stark.
“We're going to try to move people where they can fit,'' he said.
With roughly 43,000 Louisiana families still living in FEMA trailers and mobile homes following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, officials are investigating complaints that the units are exposing occupants to higher levels of formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is developing plans to test the air quality inside FEMA trailers, but those tests haven't started yet, a CDC spokesman said Thursday.
Gil Jamieson, FEMA's associate administrator for Gulf Coast recovery, said one problem with conducting air-quality tests is the absence of national standards for acceptable levels of formaldehyde in trailers.
“FEMA is a consumer of these products just as, quite frankly, anyone else is,” he said. “We bear responsibility because we're putting disaster victims in them, but it's really not our place or our mission to be a standard-setting organization.”
In Mississippi, 461 households have asked to be moved to an apartment or other housing because of the formaldehyde concerns, said FEMA spokesman Robert Josephson. To date, he said, 83 had been relocated but about 25 more households are scheduled to move at the beginning of September when apartments become available.
There are 17,382 families living in trailers and mobile homes in Mississippi, down from 45,818, Josephson said.
FEMA has temporarily suspended the sale of its trailers and said it won't be using them to house victims of future disasters until safety concerns are addressed.
Friday, August 24, 2007
About 1,000 Louisiana families have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to move them out of government-issued trailers and mobile homes over concerns that the shelters are contaminated, FEMA officials said Thursday (Aug. 23).
The Associated Press reported that Jim Stark, director of FEMA's Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office, said the agency already has moved - or is moving - about 140 of the families into apartments at the agency's expense.
To accommodate others, FEMA has identified roughly 6,500 apartment units across the state that meet the agency's “fair-market value guidelines,” according to Stark.
“We're going to try to move people where they can fit,'' he said.
With roughly 43,000 Louisiana families still living in FEMA trailers and mobile homes following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, officials are investigating complaints that the units are exposing occupants to higher levels of formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is developing plans to test the air quality inside FEMA trailers, but those tests haven't started yet, a CDC spokesman said Thursday.
Gil Jamieson, FEMA's associate administrator for Gulf Coast recovery, said one problem with conducting air-quality tests is the absence of national standards for acceptable levels of formaldehyde in trailers.
“FEMA is a consumer of these products just as, quite frankly, anyone else is,” he said. “We bear responsibility because we're putting disaster victims in them, but it's really not our place or our mission to be a standard-setting organization.”
In Mississippi, 461 households have asked to be moved to an apartment or other housing because of the formaldehyde concerns, said FEMA spokesman Robert Josephson. To date, he said, 83 had been relocated but about 25 more households are scheduled to move at the beginning of September when apartments become available.
There are 17,382 families living in trailers and mobile homes in Mississippi, down from 45,818, Josephson said.
FEMA has temporarily suspended the sale of its trailers and said it won't be using them to house victims of future disasters until safety concerns are addressed.
