FEMA Taking Hit on Sale of Surplus Trailers

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/07/AR2007030702628.html?nav=rss_nation

FEMA Taking Hit on Sale of Surplus Trailers

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 8, 2007; Page A01

Stored in such places as the vacant land near an airfield in Hope, Ark., an industrial park in Cumberland, Md., and a warehouse in Edison, N.J., are the results of one of the federal government's costliest stumbles in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- tens of thousands of empty trailers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hurriedly bought 145,000 trailers and mobile homes just before and after Katrina hit, spending $2.7 billion largely through no-bid contracts. Now, it is selling off as many as 41,000 of the homes, netting, so far, about 40 cents on each dollar spent by taxpayers.

Thousands more of the homes -- critics say more than 8,000 -- have never been used and cannot be sold immediately, even though scores of people in the South have been made homeless by recent storms.

"While FEMA has 8,420 brand new, fully furnished, never-used mobile homes in a cow pasture in Hope, Arkansas, they refuse to provide the people from Desha, Back Gate and Dumas counties with help. This is crazy," said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.). "If this is the new and improved FEMA, I don't want any part of it."

FEMA cannot sell unused mobile homes directly to the public because of legislation passed by Congress in October at the industry's urging. Instead, the agency must now go through a time-consuming process of trying to donate them first to federal, state and local agencies and public service groups, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute's Web site.

But FEMA has refused Ross's request to release 150 mobile homes to shelter people in his state who were displaced on Feb. 24 by two tornadoes, because President Bush has not declared the counties a federal disaster area, precluding FEMA's involvement.

more...

[n2doc]

1. Yep. Can't possibly sell them to people who need them

I am sure we will be seeing these either:
1. at billy bob's Trailer sales and service center, at 3x what FEMA sold them for...

2. In landfill, with the disposal cost charged by some crony organization



It never ceases to amaze me how much $$$ these greedy bastards want. Scam after scam, never ending.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. And this is supposed to be the new and improved reaction to

natural disasters and the revamped FEMA that can handle a crisis. Doesn't sound to me like they learned very much from Katrina.

Pictures from the February 24, 2007, storm that was classified as EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale (wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph).

[merh]

3. Why don't the people see it, it glares at us, it shines a light on the

hateful, divisive nature of this administration.

-snip-

"While FEMA has 8,420 brand new, fully furnished, never-used mobile homes in a cow pasture in Hope, Arkansas, they refuse to provide the people from Desha, Back Gate and Dumas counties with help. This is crazy," said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.). "If this is the new and improved FEMA, I don't want any part of it."

-snip-

But FEMA has refused Ross's request to release 150 mobile homes to shelter people in his state who were displaced on Feb. 24 by two tornadoes,because President Bush has not declared the counties a federal disaster area, precluding FEMA's involvement.

Enterprise Alabama wasn't ignored, but then again:

Enterprise Alabama
Median resident age: 36.9 years
Median household income: $37,661 (year 2000)
Median house value: $83,400 (year 2000)

Races in Enterprise:
White Non-Hispanic (69.4%)
Black (23.0%)
Hispanic (3.9%)
Two or more races (1.9%)
Other race (1.3%)
American Indian (1.0%)
Korean (0.8%)

Robert Terry Everett (born February 15, 1937) is an American politician, who has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing the 2nd Congressional District of Alabama. This district includes the entire southeastern portion of the state, including Dothan, Enterprise and part of Montgomery.

-snip-

Everett was reelected with 73 percent of the vote in the 1994 Republican wave and has not faced serious opposition since then.

Everett and his wife, the former Barbara Pitts, makes their home in Enterprise, Alabama. They are members of the Baptist Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Everett

[Squatch]

4. There are thousands of these things sitting of Ft Pickett, VA

They're just falling apart where they sit, unused and not maintained.

[gatorboy]

5. How can they resell them after my taxes have already paid for them?

Hell, Dumas taxpayers have paid for them! And Bush won't declare it a disaster area because Arkansas went very blue over the last election.

Onc again, the man plays politics with people's lives. I'm so mad I could spit! :mad:

[babylonsister]

6. .