Push to send FEMA trailers to Haiti stirs backlash

[babylonsister]

Push to send FEMA trailers to Haiti stirs backlash
AP

By CARLY EVERSON, Associated Press Writer Carly Everson


INDIANAPOLIS – The trailer industry and lawmakers are pressing the government to send Haiti thousands of potentially formaldehyde-laced trailers left over from Hurricane Katrina — an idea denounced by some as a crass and self-serving attempt to dump inferior American products on the poor.

"Just go ahead and sign their death certificate," said Paul Nelson of Coden, Ala., who contends his mother died because of formaldehyde fumes in a FEMA trailer.

The 100,000 trailers became a symbol of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's bungled response to Katrina. The government had bought the trailers to house victims of the 2005 storm, but after people began falling ill, high levels of formaldehyde, a chemical that is used in building materials and can cause breathing problems and perhaps cancer, were found inside. Many of the trailers have sat idle for years, and many are damaged.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating American assistance in Haiti, has expressed no interest in sending the trailers to the earthquake-stricken country. FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens declined to comment on the idea and said it was not FEMA's decision to make.

Haitian Culture and Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Thursday she had not heard of the proposal but added: "I don't think we would use them. I don't think we would accept them."

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100129/ap_on_bi_ge/us_leftover_trailers_haiti;_ylt=AnQwbX4R8YrTiV_wW5D2mXas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNxbW51bGR0BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTI5L3VzX2xlZnRvdmVyX3RyYWlsZXJzX2hhaXRpBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDcHVzaHRvc2VuZGZl

[tosh]

1. As I stated in an earlier thread,

these trailers have no business in that environment even without the formaldehyde.

[hayu_lol]

3. Hmmm...a massive effort to hide the FEMA mobile home fiasco...

by sending the deteriorated mobiles offshore. Brownie's Boondoggle can't be so easily hidden.

Bad idea.

[appal_jack]

7. If they were manufactured in 2005,

If they were manufactured in 2005, then the formaldehyde has largely dissipated.

Outgassing is always worst the first year or two after manufacture.

-app

[Forkboy]

2. It would be a great idea were they healthy trailers.

As they stand now Karloff would find the accommodations sucky.

[Maru Kitteh]

4. Why not recycle all the materials in the trailers & donate the funds to healthy shelters for Haiti?

[Jamastiene]

5. Oh dear God no.

Those things are pure poison. Too many people have been subjected to FEMA trailers as it is now.

[NYC_SKP]

6. Not all FEMA trailers need be formaldehyish. Some are even LEED certified.

http://www.greenhorizonmfg.com/index.htm

[Bluenorthwest]

9. These are very cool

Thanks for the link.

[NYC_SKP]

10. They make them here in my town, I visited the facility.

They're much better than trailers, a bit more costly but serve as permanent homes if that's the disposition the client wants.

LEED certified, made to pre-fab home standards, and not bad at about 50K each, all things considered.

They fit in a shipping container, have a slide-out feature to expand the living area, and are designed for quick world wide deployment.

[csziggy]

18. That looks cool, but why not just give them the shipping containers?

They are solidly built to handle abuse, weather tight, in standard sizes and generally considered past a useful life (for shipping) in just a few years, so there are lots of extras. Fill them up with food and other needed goods, ship them to Haiti and put them where people need housing. They would withstand hurricanes better than tents or quickly thrown together housing.

Once the infrastructure is in place, the containers could be moved to other locations, stacked or assembled into large accommodations, or simply used for other purposes.

http://www.shipping-container-housing.com/

http://www.shippingcontainerhousedesign.com/index.html

Fancier more stylish versions:
http://designcrave.com/2009-06-22/10-brilliant-boxy-and-sustainable-shipping-container-homes/
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html

[KT2000]

12. Very impressive

thanks for the link.

[sandnsea]

15. Those are great

Made with 100% recycled materials too. They come with a week of food and supplies as well. Seems like they'd be the solution to a lot of housing problems around the country.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Death traps

I've been inside FEMA trailers after Katrina (one had supposedly aired out after many months). My eyes started burning immediately upon entry, and my throat became sore.

[NOLALady]

11. I thought those trailers were destroyed.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Nope...they have sitting on a huge tract of land

since they were rejected.
I think in Arkansas?
Sitting there for years, uncovered, in all sorts of weather, no A/C, no heat.
Wonder what the inside smells like NOW ?

[aquart]

13. Haven't they suffered enough?

[Atman]

14. Knowing FEMA, they'd use our dollars to RE-BUY the trailers

Besides, we all know that trailers hold up so well in hurricane-prone areas. In the middle of the Caribbean, they'd probably all be washed out to sea or blown to pieces before anyone contracted any illness from them.

.

[unabelladonna]

17. couldn't they be used on a very temporary basis?

i would think the fumes would have dissipated after so many years. at this point what is the alternative? are tents better? something's got to be done, the situation is turning desperate.

[yellowcanine]

19. Why not build formaldehyde free trailors in Elkhart County Indiana?

Elkhart County Indiana has a large trailer industry which is suffering because of the economy. Put people in Indiana back to work and make some decent housing for people in Haiti at the same time.