News and Announcements
Katrina homeless waiting for trailers
Date: 11/6/2005
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Many Hurricane Katrina evacuees are still waiting for the 125,000 trailers or mobile homes the federal government has promised are on the way.
Only about 19,000 of the trailers and mobile homes have been delivered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the 10 weeks since the hurricane left hundreds of thousands homeless, the Chicago Tribune reports.
It`s only one part of the housing plans, which include rental assistance, which 488,000 people have gotten so far.
For people like Vanessa Posey, FEMA moves too slow and doesn`t follow through.
After living in a tent with her seven children in her mother`s front yard in East Biloxi, Miss., FEMA finally came through with two trailers -- nine weeks after it promised her a mobile home.
Neither have electricity and she can`t get through to FEMA about it.
FEMA officials say they are trying to get the trailers and mobile homes out, but are running into problems out of their control.
Some are still being built, local governments aren`t allowing trailer villages and the Katrina ravaged sewer and electrical lines need to be reconnected before anything can be set up.