FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
February 1, 2006
Contact:  Rachel Kleinman
(202) 225-3772
 

Ross Again Requests Answers from FEMA Regarding Unoccupied Trailers
 
(Washington, D.C.)  U.S. Rep. Mike Ross (AR-04) Wednesday sent a letter to R. David Paulison, Acting Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), requesting a response to inquiries from over six weeks ago regarding why unoccupied manufactured homes ordered by FEMA are being housed at Hope Municipal Airport, in Arkansas's Fourth Congressional District, and other staging areas while thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees continue to live in tents and temporary housing.  

Today’s letter marks the third time Ross has requested to know why these manufactured homes, requested by FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, are not being distributed to evacuees in a timely manner more than five months after the devastating storm.  Since Ross’s initial inquiry to FEMA, the number of manufactured homes in Hope alone has ballooned to at least 9,000.

The text of the letter is provided below: 

February 1, 2006 

Mr. R. David Paulison
Acting Director
Federal Emergency Management Agency
500 C Street, SW
Washington, DC  20472 

Dear Director Paulison: 

I am writing as a follow-up to letters addressed to your office on December 13, 2005 and December 15, 2005.  As of today, I have not received any correspondence from you or your office in response to my inquiries.   

Both of these letters referenced the manufactured homes purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that are currently being stored in “so-called” FEMA staging areas, such as the one at Hope Municipal Airport near Hope, Arkansas, located within my Congressional District. These manufactured homes have been purchased to house the thousands of families displaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, yet they remain parked empty at the Hope Airport. 

My question to you is why are so many residents still without adequate housing over five months after the storm?  Today, CNN reported, as a result of the 217,000 homes destroyed in New Orleans, 65,000 trailers have been requested and only 2,000 have been delivered.  These numbers do not include the massive devastation and thousands of victims left without homes in Mississippi or other parts of Louisiana.   

It is completely unacceptable that we still have residents without housing while there are currently over 9,000 new, empty manufactured homes purchased by FEMA, in my district alone.  Furthermore, the lack of response to my previous letters only reiterates the fact that inefficiencies within FEMA have failed to provide the American people with a proper and timely response to one of the most costly natural disasters in our nation’s history.   

Thank you for your prompt attention, and I look forward to your response to this inquiry and my previous letters.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you have concerning this matter. 

Sincerely,
 

 

Mike Ross
 


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