FEMA Flip-Flops Again on Trailers [View All]

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 18, 2008; Page A17

Those trailers the Federal Emergency Management Agency bought to house Hurricane Katrina victims were at the center of the storm again yesterday -- and not in a way that's going to make folks at the beleaguered agency any happier.

FEMA hurriedly bought the 145,000 trailers and mobile homes via no-bid contracts just before and after Katrina hit the coast in August 2005. But the purchase quickly became problematic, with some communities refusing them for a variety of reasons.

FEMA was forced to put trailers on the market, selling them to anyone for 40 cents on the dollar.

Yesterday, however, the emergency agency offered to buy them back, for their original purchase price, because of concerns that the trailers are tainted with formaldehyde. The agency said it is making the offer because of concerns about "possible adverse health effects" associated with the trailers


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702965.html?nav=hcmoduletmv