FEMA was in the process of providing two kinds of trailers for N.O. and the surrounding area.
Travel Trailers, that are the kind that could be pulled by any full-sized car. (Back when cars had frames. It wasn't necessary to have an SUV or a truck frame to pull these little things with rounded ends.
Bigger trailers, whose name I forget, that are meant to be hooked up to one or more external services, like propane or something. The pictures show that these are still pretty small.
There is a rule that the bigger trailers can not be located below the flood plain. On one of the Sunday morning TV news shows, someone was asked and said that was a FEMA rule. The interviewer asked if the rule could be changed, but somehow the question was never answered. What is the basis of the rule?
Now, some or most or almost all of these bigger trailers have been put into storage, in Arkansas or somewhere, and according to other news stories, they are already damaged and may not ever be able to be used. According to one story, they were stored too close together, and are now sinking into the ground (whenever it rains?).
There are iirc 30,000 larger trailers, worth more than 300 million dollars.
My speculation. A) They can't be located on land below the flood plain, because they can't be moved that quickly and will get ruined if there is another flood. However they are gettin ruined anyhow.
B) They couldn't be located on higher land because of NIMBY, people didn't want several of these things in the park across the street.
C) They could have been located in the driveway or yard of the person who was homeless, so that he would be close to his property, and could start rebuilding, or at least salvaging, cleaning, and/or destruction.. But what property was most likely to have damaged by the Katrina flooding? That which is below the flood plain, of course.
So either they ordered the wrong type of trailer. They should have ordered more travel trailers. OR There were no more travel trailers to buy, but having ordered the bigger trailers, they should have and should still allow them to be used below the flood plain, since they're going to be worthless in a couple years either way. and there might not be another flood in the same place for years.
--end speculation--
If they had used plywood below the trailers when they stored them, would that have kept them from sinking into the ground?
Please, I would be interested in answers to any of these questions or comments on any part of this post.
Although this relates to the news, it is actually on topic, I think.
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