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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Toxic trailers for hurricane victims? Heckuva job, FEMA Paul Stewart and his wife, Melody, lost "everything we owned in the span of a couple of hours," when Hurricane Katrina swept through their home in Bay St. Louis, Miss., nearly two years ago. In December 2005, they were relieved when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) delivered a new travel trailer that would become their temporary home. That relief, however, was short-lived. Within days, Paul's eyes and throat got scratchy. He started coughing. Melody awoke with a bloody nose. One morning, they found their pet cockatiel barely able to move. Last month, in testimony before a House committee, Paul credited the bird, Cici, with saving their lives. Their veterinarian guessed the problem might be fumes from formaldehyde, a chemical common in particle board used in trailers — and one that can be toxic. When Paul reported the problem to FEMA, the government's lead disaster agency, he says he was ignored, patronized, and given another trailer with formaldehyde fumes and a third with bed bugs. He finally used $50,000 of his insurance settlement to buy his own camper. The Stewarts' story would be disturbing enough were it unique, but by the spring of 2006 FEMA was aware of broader formaldehyde problems in its trailers, which today still house more than 60,000 families who lost their homes to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That so many families remain in temporary housing is itself scandalous and underscores the slow pace of recovery on the Gulf Coast. That's not the fault of FEMA alone. Complex forces — from lack of insurance to lumbering local planning to cumbersome bureaucracies — have held back recovery. The toxic trailers are another matter. They are the kind of problem that should have been tackled quickly, deliberately and effectively. Instead, FEMA's dithering, indifferent response is reminiscent of its ineptitude after Katrina. Well into the second hurricane season since that tragedy, FEMA is still too slow and too willing to put its bureaucratic self-interest above the needs of victims — the precise problems it exhibited after Katrina. Even after FEMA's test of an occupied trailer, in April 2006, found what congressional investigators called "excessive levels" of formaldehyde — 75 times the federal limit for workplaces — the agency failed to move decisively. Two months later, a FEMA lawyer advised against more testing, according to e-mails obtained by the House panel. "Once you get results the clock is running on our duty to respond to them," the lawyer wrote. In July 2006, FEMA responded — with a brochure that warned about formaldehyde (but provided no phone numbers) and told occupants to open their windows. With the congressional investigators bearing down this spring, FEMA finally started a new assessment of trailer conditions by federal experts. And, on Wednesday, FEMA announced it won't deploy more trailers or sell any used trailers until testing is done. Better late than never, but given the reflexive incompetence of FEMA's response, you have to wonder whether the agency has yet learned that its job is to relieve human distress. Paul Stewart and thousands of other Katrina survivors have suffered enough; they needn't be victimized again.
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#1. To: kiki, *KATRINA* (#0)
Ron Paul for President
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