Anyone remember when Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans? That was on August 29 2005. And hotels and motels in Texas, Louisiana, Mississipi and even as far away as California were housing Katrina refugees, with FEMA paying for their stay under the FEMA Hotel/Motel Program.

Over three years and counting, but FEMA apparently doesn’t want to get over it. Every other week, a new scandal related to Katrina emerges out of the unreconstructed cockamamie screw-up called the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Apparently 800 displaced Katrina victims in Mississipi are still living in hotel rooms paid for by FEMA. In Mississipi alone, FEMA still picks up the tab for 295 households in hotels, and manages 3 trailer sites in Harrison County. 3,200 travel trailers and mobile homes are still in service in Mississipi.

And even when they do scrap something, even the scrap ends up as a scandal. FEMA  recently designated 10,000 trailer units as scrap which could be sold to the public. These units were purchased in 2005 after Katrina to house evacuees. Apparently formaldehyde levels in these trailers were too high, and residents of FEMA-issued trailers reported frequent headaches, nosebleeds and other ailments.  

Just the fact that people who were housed in these trailers were falling sick is a mega scandal all by itself. But selling them to the general public even when they know the trailers are toxic is not only a bureaucratic screwup, it should be a criminal offense.

If you consider all the scandals since that fateful day in Aug 2005, you could well fiull a book with FEMA’s follies. The inept first response, the emergency transitional housing screwup, the ice scandal, the wasted funds… And now, toxic trailers and inability to provide permanent housing. It just keeps getting worse and worse.

President Obama should put off shuttering Gitmo for later. Focus first on things which are really important - Like disbanding FEMA.

Posted on November 18th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: News