[Rhodes22-list] Where's FEMA?

[Brad Haslett]

Screw it, I give up!  Whichever candidate is promising a brand-new
double-wide to every man, woman and child in the US gets my vote. Hell,
include Africa as well to be on the safe side. The latest news from the Gulf
Coast is that FEMA is moving everyone out of travel-trailers (and into
mobile homes) because everyone (or at least many people) have discovered the
newest scam, "I'm suffering from formaldehyde!" The lawsuits would be bigger
and faster but for the fact that the biggest Katrina lawyer is currently
awaiting trial on a Katrina lawsuit scam (tried to bribe a Judge and Trent
Lott retiring as a US Senator is completely unrelated to this being his
brother-in-law). Here's the solution - my brother has been living in a very,
very used travel-trailer in KatrinaLand longer than Katrina victims.  The
key to good health is aging - just like wine.  The Gubment should pay a
premium for our environmentally friendly trailer and give us one of the new
ones to age for them.  Better yet, Berkeley has some nice housing.  Forget
temporary housing, commandeer housing in Bezerkly and tell every 'victim' to
take their time getting back on their feet. No good deed goes unpunished!

Brad

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Cali Wildfire Victims Ask: Where's FEMA?
*RAMONA, Calif., Feb. 17, 2008*
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*(AP) *Patty Reedy is still waiting for someone at the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to send her the mobile home she was promised before
Christmas.

In December, agency inspectors said she wouldn't get a government house to
replace the one she lost during last year's wildfires because it would be
too difficult to haul the 60-foot, three-bedroom prefabricated home up a
winding road to her remote mountaintop property.

Reedy isn't alone. FEMA brought dozens of mobile homes to Southern
California after the fires, only to find their own guidelines prevented them
from putting them on many properties in rough terrain. San Diego County
officials say dozens of applicants were denied homes because their
properties were inaccessible to trucks, didn't have connections into the
electrical grid or were on hillsides deemed at mudslide risk.

"They don't have any familiarity with these areas so they can't conceive of
the needs being different," said Deena Raver, a contractor who was hired by
San Diego County to help fire victims. "You're talking about one area with
sewage and water and other places that are very rural."

The mobile home delay is another blemish on a beleaguered agency.

When the fires broke out in five Southern California counties, forcing half
a million people to flee, many thought FEMA - still bruised from its
performance after Hurricane Katrina - had a golden opportunity to repair its
image.

But the fires blackened about 800 square miles and destroyed nearly 2,200
homes, a fraction of the 90,000 square miles and roughly 500,000 homes
ravaged by the hurricane, and left roads, power lines and sewage systems
largely intact.

"FEMA wasn't really tested here," said Paul Light, a professor of public
service at New York University. "It really wasn't a dry run for sustained
response and recovery."

FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the agency applied lessons it learned in
Katrina to streamline its operations in Southern California - like the need
to respond quickly. Two days before President Bush declared a federal
disaster, FEMA crews were moving into fire-stricken zones and setting up at
San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium.

Within a week, the agency had begun disbursing grants up to $28,800,
short-circuiting detailed accounting requirements that slowed relief after
the 2003 fires. So far, FEMA has paid more than $13.1 million to 1,973
people, mostly in San Diego County.

But the agency has only distributed 33 mobile homes in the county, including
14 on American Indian reservation land.

In 2003, the agency sent short, adaptable "travel trailers" to house people
living in the mountains, but they are being avoided now amid concerns about
toxic chemicals; this week the agency said it would move hurricane victims
out of more than 35,000 trailers because tests indicate some of the
temporary homes contain high levels of formaldehyde.

Instead, FEMA only dispatched three-bedroom modular homes to Southern
California - luxurious compared to the 15-foot travel trailers, but, at 60
feet, too long to fit on many properties or be moved up steep roads full of
switchbacks. They also require too much electricity to run off generators or
solar panels and have to be hooked into the power grid. They have to be on
flat land, away from any hills that might be at risk for mudslides.

Grace Yim, a FEMA branch manager in Pasadena, said she didn't know how many
eligible fire victims were denied homes.

"We met a lot of challenges with the kind of unit that was available to us -
there are canyon areas, mountainous areas so we had a lot of sites that came
back infeasible, and then there's just nothing we can do," Yim said.

People who were unable to put the large trailers on their properties were
referred to other agencies, mainly Housing and Urban Development, for
subsidized apartments, Yim said.

But living far away from isolated lots can slow reconstruction for people
who are cash-strapped to begin with, said Bonnie Frede, director of a
nonprofit-funded fire recovery center in the mountain town of Ramona, about
35 miles northeast of San Diego.

"These people want to be on their land," Frede said.

Reedy, a lithe 51-year-old, said she already put more than 7,000 miles on
her pickup truck driving up and down the mountain, costing her $2,000 in gas
out of her $28,800 grant. She had hoped to get the mobile home on her land
and eventually use the grant money to buy it.

She said she will keep trying to get the promised FEMA home on her property.


"I ran into my first FEMA inspector at the grocery store, and he said, 'You
pay your taxes, so don't let them tell you no,"' she said. "As long as I
know what I'm working towards, I can start to plan, but right now it's just
sitting in the bank while I waste gas."