Wednesday, March 26, 2008
FEMA TESTING UNUSED MOBILE HOMES
RV Business
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
It looks like a manufactured boneyard from the World War II-era control tower of the Hope, Ark., airport.
According to an Associated Press report, thousands of mobile homes and travel trailers purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) line almost a square mile of land beyond the airfield's main runway, the same Air Force One taxied down when hometown boy Bill Clinton visited as president. Most sit never used after similar models housing victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 tested positive for higher levels of formaldehyde.
Now, as new victims of natural disasters in Arkansas, Tennessee and Oregon clamor for federal assistance, FEMA has begun testing its stock of mobile homes there with plans to offer them to states in need. The agency said recently that it will no longer use travel trailers for emergency housing.
"I think at this point we're trying to assess what our needs are and test those needs," FEMA spokeswoman Julie Bradford said. "We want to have as many as possible standing by, ready to go. We're trying to accommodate the needs and provide safe housing."
The roughly 600-acre site used by FEMA at the airport remains closed to the public and under watch by armed security guards. Tuesday, FEMA officials allowed an Associated Press reporter and photographer to tour the site and examine parts of the testing process.
More than 7,500 mobile homes and 11,800 travel trailers sit within feet of each other at the site, often backed in at an angle. Many have white vinyl siding, unadorned windows and single front doors. Some show the signs of their age, with gray weathering darkening their vinyl or gray shingles out of place on their roofs.
Inside, chairs for a dining room sit stacked on one another. Microwaves and stoves have a light layer of dust. Cloth and naugahyde couches sit unused on wall-to-wall linoleum flooring.
"One, it's easier to clean," site manager Ed Mitura of the flooring. "Two, you don't have to worry about colors."
AP reported that in the rush after the 2005 storms, FEMA bought the mobile homes and travel trailers both direct from the manufacturers as well as off lots around the country. One trailer beckoned passers-by with a yellow-and-white lettered come-on: "Great Floor Plan Great Price!"
"Katrina was such a huge disaster, they were buying everything they could," Mitura said.
That got the agency into trouble. FEMA spent $2.7 billion to buy 145,000 mobile homes and trailers, thousands of which went unused.
Then came the complaints from hurricane victims about suffering headaches and nosebleeds after living inside the homes. Lawsuits claimed the mobile homes and travel trailers contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials.
In response, FEMA began a testing process for mobile homes it planned on shipping out to disaster victims. At Hope, officials set up an electrical grid to run to the mobile home's air conditioning units. The units run for seven days straight, with the doors only opened by employees twice a day to check the temperature of the 72-degree air.
The eighth day, a contractor enters the mobile home to take an air sample to test for formaldehyde levels. A lab analyzes the air and offers a report to FEMA, which then passes it along to the state in need.
"The state will review those test results and they'll decide if the mobile homes are acceptable for use," Bradford said. "That would be their decision. Of course, that information will also be shared with the residents who will be living in those mobile homes.
"FEMA basically is going ahead with the testing, but there are no federal guidelines when it comes to safe levels. So we are making sure the state has all that information available to them to make that decision."
As of Tuesday, 128 mobile homes had undergone the testing, sitting aside from the others in a corner of the lot. Testing also began around the same time at FEMA's holding lot in Selma, Ala.
AP reported that in Arkansas, Gov. Mike Beebe has said those receiving the mobile homes would have final say on whether they found the level of formaldehyde acceptable. State officials planned to meet later this week with FEMA about using the mobile homes to house victims of two Feb. 5 tornadoes, said David Maxwell, director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
However, the need for emergency housing in Arkansas will likely grow as flooding continues across the state's prairie.
"I think they have the test results," Maxwell said Tuesday. "But for the last few days I've been tied up."
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
It looks like a manufactured boneyard from the World War II-era control tower of the Hope, Ark., airport.
According to an Associated Press report, thousands of mobile homes and travel trailers purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) line almost a square mile of land beyond the airfield's main runway, the same Air Force One taxied down when hometown boy Bill Clinton visited as president. Most sit never used after similar models housing victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 tested positive for higher levels of formaldehyde.
Now, as new victims of natural disasters in Arkansas, Tennessee and Oregon clamor for federal assistance, FEMA has begun testing its stock of mobile homes there with plans to offer them to states in need. The agency said recently that it will no longer use travel trailers for emergency housing.
"I think at this point we're trying to assess what our needs are and test those needs," FEMA spokeswoman Julie Bradford said. "We want to have as many as possible standing by, ready to go. We're trying to accommodate the needs and provide safe housing."
The roughly 600-acre site used by FEMA at the airport remains closed to the public and under watch by armed security guards. Tuesday, FEMA officials allowed an Associated Press reporter and photographer to tour the site and examine parts of the testing process.
More than 7,500 mobile homes and 11,800 travel trailers sit within feet of each other at the site, often backed in at an angle. Many have white vinyl siding, unadorned windows and single front doors. Some show the signs of their age, with gray weathering darkening their vinyl or gray shingles out of place on their roofs.
Inside, chairs for a dining room sit stacked on one another. Microwaves and stoves have a light layer of dust. Cloth and naugahyde couches sit unused on wall-to-wall linoleum flooring.
"One, it's easier to clean," site manager Ed Mitura of the flooring. "Two, you don't have to worry about colors."
AP reported that in the rush after the 2005 storms, FEMA bought the mobile homes and travel trailers both direct from the manufacturers as well as off lots around the country. One trailer beckoned passers-by with a yellow-and-white lettered come-on: "Great Floor Plan Great Price!"
"Katrina was such a huge disaster, they were buying everything they could," Mitura said.
That got the agency into trouble. FEMA spent $2.7 billion to buy 145,000 mobile homes and trailers, thousands of which went unused.
Then came the complaints from hurricane victims about suffering headaches and nosebleeds after living inside the homes. Lawsuits claimed the mobile homes and travel trailers contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials.
In response, FEMA began a testing process for mobile homes it planned on shipping out to disaster victims. At Hope, officials set up an electrical grid to run to the mobile home's air conditioning units. The units run for seven days straight, with the doors only opened by employees twice a day to check the temperature of the 72-degree air.
The eighth day, a contractor enters the mobile home to take an air sample to test for formaldehyde levels. A lab analyzes the air and offers a report to FEMA, which then passes it along to the state in need.
"The state will review those test results and they'll decide if the mobile homes are acceptable for use," Bradford said. "That would be their decision. Of course, that information will also be shared with the residents who will be living in those mobile homes.
"FEMA basically is going ahead with the testing, but there are no federal guidelines when it comes to safe levels. So we are making sure the state has all that information available to them to make that decision."
As of Tuesday, 128 mobile homes had undergone the testing, sitting aside from the others in a corner of the lot. Testing also began around the same time at FEMA's holding lot in Selma, Ala.
AP reported that in Arkansas, Gov. Mike Beebe has said those receiving the mobile homes would have final say on whether they found the level of formaldehyde acceptable. State officials planned to meet later this week with FEMA about using the mobile homes to house victims of two Feb. 5 tornadoes, said David Maxwell, director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
However, the need for emergency housing in Arkansas will likely grow as flooding continues across the state's prairie.
"I think they have the test results," Maxwell said Tuesday. "But for the last few days I've been tied up."
