The Final Call

Toxic living in FEMA trailers?

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“Members of my family and our neighbors began feeling sick all of a sudden and I didn’t know why until I started reading news reports about the dangerous toxins. We moved out immediately,” he said. Mr. Ferguson and his family moved to San Antonio before finally residing in southwest Houston.

“I wasn’t going to wait on them to come and inspect because as you can see they still haven’t done anything. They do not care about us,” he added, in a recent Final Call interview.

Despite two years of reports about the dangers of trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the government has not fulfilled its promise of thorough inspections throughout the Gulf Coast, according to critics and media reports.

FEMA employees, however, were ordered by bosses in early November to stay away from trailers while hurricane survivors endure the effects of lethal chemicals, critics charge.

According to ToxicTrailers.com, over 52,000 households displaced by Hurricane Katrina still live in mobile trailers and have been heavily exposed to formaldehyde, a known respiratory irritant and carcinogen. The website collects the stories and complaints of hurricane evacuees living in FEMA trailers.

Complaints posted online by trailer occupants provide accounts of suffering, including eye, nose, and throat irritation, nausea and breathing difficulties. The trailer residents charge the symptoms come from formaldehyde exposure. Some children have experienced continuous vomiting while living in trailers, forcing some people to sleep outside on the ground, according to the complaints.

A CBS News report Nov. 7, “FEMA Protecting Itself, Not Evacuees,” reported on emails circulating within FEMA that ordered agency employees not go near the trailers for fear of toxic threats. CBS called the warnings a double standard, saying what’s good for Katrina survivors should be good for FEMA inspectors.

“The cited emails did not involve FEMA staff working with residents in occupied travel trailers.Neither these instructions nor the referenced memo were ever sent to Individual Assistance employees who work with trailer residents in the field. Why? Because there is no restriction on FEMA staff entering occupied trailers. As FEMA staff made clear to CBS, we enter trailers every day and, if invited, will do so today so that we can continue to work with anyone asking for assistance in moving to alternative housing,” said FEMA in a statement released after the CBS report.

In a published report, FEMA’s director said there was no double standard. The caution was based upon trailers ventilated by occupants and stored trailers, he said. According to FEMA, a stored trailer must be ventilated by a forced air pump for a minimum of 30 minutes before they are considered safe for employees.

The Channel 8 news network in Monroe, La. also conducted a special investigation that exposed the flawed and substandard designs of many FEMA trailers. Building expert Bobby Parks examined the inside walls of two mobile homes, Channel 8 News said. The “wall cavities were anywhere from 10-30,000 times higher on one specific mold spore than what was found on the outside. This is very indicative of a wall that is exposed to an elevated level of moisture,” said Mr. Parks. Mould is another potential health hazard.

FEMA officials said the agency is working to move all 52,520 households residing in travel trailers nationwide into permanent housing. “Of these, 4,609 households—or 8.7 percent—have expressed a health concern since July 21. Everyone who has called FEMA’s formaldehyde call centers with concerns has been offered an immediate move to a hotel or motel until alternate housing is located,” FEMA said.

The sale and deployment of travel trailers has been suspended, pending the result of safety studies, FEMA said. The agency said formaldehyde and housing fact sheets were distributed to the occupants of every FEMA temporary housing unit across the Gulf Coast in July. “In the Gulf Coast, an average of 810 households per week move out of these temporary housing units and back into permanent housing,” FEMA said.