FEMA Travel Trailers

[mdunn]

Last few weeks I have been looking to buy a used travel trailer,and last night I stumbled onto a auction site that sells for the government,what I saw surprised me but didnt shock me.
After Hurricane Katrina,FEMA supplied over 100,000 travel trailers to familys that lost thier homes.All of these trailers were at least 32 footers and brand new to 1 year old.
There were about 57 trailers listed for sale of which all of them were more less trashed!!Holes punched in the walls,parts missing,just totally destroyed!!These were the same people crying that uncle sam didnt care about them,and this is what they do.It really angered me to see what a waste my tax dollars went for.And to see 20,000 dollar trailers sell for 2000 bucks.
I would be willing to bet the government wont be so generous in the future.They dont deserve it.

[mdunn]

FEMA trailers trashed by users - 1,200 of the temporary units have been so badly damaged....
Houston Chronicle ^ | 11/01/2006 | TERRI LANGFORD


Posted on 11/02/2006 9:20:04 AM PST by Responsibility2nd


Note to Hurricane Rita survivors: Please don't beat up the FEMA trailers, use them as meth labs or cart them off to your deer lease during hunting season.

More than 1,200 of the one-bedroom travel trailers issued to people displaced by Rita have been torn up so badly that serious repairs have been necessary, according to a statement Tuesday from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"They're certainly not for long-term living, and we at FEMA better understand that better than anybody," said Don Jacks, an agency spokesman in Austin.

4,600 trailers issued

In Texas, more than 4,600 of the one-bedroom trailers were issued free of charge to those made homeless by the Category 3 hurricane when it hit Sabine Pass on Sept. 24, 2005.

Today, about 3,000 of the trailers — which cost federal taxpayers $20,000 each — remain in use in Texas. So far, about 1,200 have suffered so much vandalism they had to be sent to FEMA repair centers in Texas and Arkansas, Jacks said.

One trailer had more than 300 cigarette burns. Another was burned to the ground. Hundreds of others have torn cushions, broken doors, torn-up refrigerators and myriad problems.

Used as drug labs

Then there's the illegal use issue.

Some of the trailers issued to Hurricane Rita and Katrina evacuees have been used as drug labs. One Texas man trucked his to Louisiana and sold it. A few other tenants have hooked them up to vehicles and even taken their trailers to deer leases to have a place to stay while hunting.

"They are rare instances," Jacks said of the hunters. "You shake your head and wonder, 'What are they thinking?'"

Jacks said residents need to understand that vandalizing or removing the trailers could violate their written agreements with FEMA.

That said, only five Rita victims have been removed from trailers for violating those agreements, according to FEMA

[iplaw]

100,000 trailers were given out, I'd assume a percentage were expected to be destroyed.  Do you know what the overall rate is?  

I agree it's disrespectful, but we were giving free trailers to people who came from the most crime intensive place in America, in fact at one time, the murder captial of the US, could we not have seen this coming?

Of course we had no other option, the good folks needed trailers and they had no way of weeding out the bad.

[mdunn]

quote:Originally posted by iplaw

100,000 trailers were given out, I'd assume a percentage were expected to be destroyed.  Do you know what the overall rate is?  

I agree it's disrespectful, but we were giving free trailers to people who came from the most crime intensive place in America, in fact at one time, the murder captial of the US, could we not have seen this coming?

Of course we had no other option, the good folks needed trailers and they had no way of weeding out the bad.

I say next time they need to put them in rail cars,see if they can destroy them as easy!