We've blogged in the past about the horrendous effects of Hurricane
Katrina and the continued difficulties that many victims face nearly
three years later (See here
and here).
As if Hurricane Katrina victims haven't suffered enough, hundreds of
thousands of displaced Gulf Coast homeowners are also dealing with the
adverse health conditions caused by hastily constructed FEMA trailers.
In
their haste to move displaced residents into temporary housing, the
feds ordered the construction of billions of dollars worth of trailers
that contained excessive levels of formaldehyde - a chemical linked to
several types of cancer. Whats worse is that the government
directions/specifications to builders was only one page long. As a
side note, my grocery lists are often longer than FEMA's specification
sheet. From a Washington Post article:
Within days of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in August 2005, frantic officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered nearly $2.7 billion worth of trailers and mobile homes to house the storm's victims, many of them using a single page of specifications.
Just 25 lines spelled out FEMA's requirements, with little mention of the safety of those to be housed. Manufacturers produced trailers with unusual speed. Within months, some residents began complaining about unusual sickness; breathing problems; burning eyes, noses and throats; even deaths.
Instead of focusing on quality and safety, FEMA concerned itself with speed. So far 17,000 trailer residents have alleged getting ill as a result of the trailers and have filed a class-action against the federal government and 64 trailer manufacturers. In what has been an ongoing debacle in dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in American history, hopefully these Katrina victims will get some relief through the civil justice system.
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