Oh No !!! Not more FEMA trailers !!!

[GPW]

As you may have heard , a couple Hurricanes raked our area , laving many people homeless… Now Our Government is once again resorting to FEMA trailers … From Katrina experience , these are the absolute Worst trailers made , hastily assembled , with inferior materials that outgas to produce chemical smells …The trailer companies will make millions selling these, and the landscape will be littered with rotting trailers when this is done …
After the crisis is over , there will be a big sale of Fema trailers , best not buy one as they are definitely not made to last … They quickly fall apart , and the parts are of such poor quality , they are useless for any of our interests …
Just so you know !!!

[swoody126]

GPW, they're not intended to be a solution to the ultimate problem

only a bandaid approach for those wanting to remain on or close enuff to their property to be able to get it cleaned up and rebuilt

they are built like cheesy travel trailers not mobile homes and not intended as a permanent residences

any such portable dwelling would cost more to renovate for resale after being used as intended than they could ever be sold for so the least expensive materials available are employed in their creation

i was involved(drove the 3rd charter bus thru the barricades) w/ the efforts to evacuate low country residents just days after Katrina struck

those who owned nothing and lost everything were deemed better off being removed to higher ground(in my case they were transported to DFW area hotels n motels where FEMA support systems were closer)

i was also involved w/ catering to the drivers who drove the supplies and trailers to the folks who chose to stay after Katrina

the trailer haulers told stories of families that were so happy to have something ... ANYTHING to live in while they rebuilt

YES those trailers are minimum magnificent butt they beat a tent all to H E double ugly and they offer folks a chance to get back on their feet when other assistance isn't avaiable(like when they don't have insurance and have to rebuild on their own out of pocket over an extended period of time)

i think a btw is in order here ... while helping clean up after Harvey i met Tommie an elderly lady who lived in a house in Port Aransas Texas that got lifted off it's foundation and floated 25' back by effluent from the local sewage plant which reached 7' inside in the process

Tommie's House.jpg (134.27 KiB) Viewed 598 times

her home was immediately condemed and she was tickled to death to have the smallest of those cheesy FEMA trailers to live in while she cleaned up her property one trash bag at a time

just this old man's 2¢ worth this morning

sw

[DrewsBrews]

...They are built like cheesy travel trailers not mobile homes and not intended as a permanent residences...

Im pretty sure that is exactly what they were. They just left off bells and whistles like exterior stickers and things that draw a buyer in.


[edit] I wonder if they compared formaldehyde levels to anything besides homes.. such as other campers of same model year.

[TimC]

+1 SW!

The only experience I have with a hurricane was in 1972 when hurricane Agnes related floods effected west central PA. My thirteen year old self thought it quite the adventure being stranded on high ground with the only road to town flooded. But my thirteen year old self had an awakening when we donned backpacks and hiked over the mountain to Clarington to make a phone call to my dad to say we were OK. No phones available in town. We found a house on high ground that allowed me to make that call.

It was a nightmare for folks along the Clarion River putting the small town of Clarington underwater for days. I only wish that there were some FEMA trailers for those folks. Fortunately being a small, close knit community, neighbors on high ground took in families and helped the cleanup efforts.

I guess in today's world that awakening would make me "woke". I proudly accept that!

[GPW]

They do serve a worthy purpose indeed , and are much appreciated by those that really need them ! This being a trailer building forum , I was mostly commenting on how really badly those trailers were constructed , How they reeked of noxious chemicals and had many immediate faults ( leaking, things not working) , and how much money the government paid trailer manufacturers for these .

Actually , my beef is with the bureaucracy that handled all this , It just seems they could have done better for $75,000 per trailer . … Our tax money at work … JMHO

Note: I’m not a fan of manufactured trailers , why we came here in the first place!!!

[swoody126]

GPW, according to Wiki the $65k(not $75k) trailers are 14' wide x 22' long units

these dimensions do not conform to "standard" trailer specs/manufacturing practices resulting in special manufacturing issues n plant configurations

Wiki made no mention as to why these dimensions were spec'd

one can only guess and that hardly ever provides accurate answers

the culprit of the health complaints (11,000 according to Wiki) is FORMALDEHYDE which is found in virtually all butt the most premium of trailers like Airstream

take into consideration the number of disaster victims that were served by FEMA trailers after Katrina and Rita

folks who had been living in conventional housing and then had(got) to live in a greatly reduced space(less than 1/3rd the space of a small tract house) than they are accustomed to and factor in the exposure to the FORMALDEHYDE off gassing from the el cheapo building materials commonly found in trailers there is no room for wonder as to why they are complaining

¿ what does this have to do with this forum and it's forumites you say ?

IMHO it should be an eye opener to those who seek out the least expensive materials for building a tiny enclosure where they intend to sleep and wait out foul weather conditions (many w/o flow thru ventilation)

it should also be an encouragement for designers/builders to employ materials according to commonly available dimensions to avoid wa$ted material$ n fund$ raising the co$t/u$able $pace

sw

[QueticoBill]

While I know they have not delivered many, https://www.boxabl.com/ sure seems like a better value for $50k.

[popper]

I'm with woody, its a disservice to the cause to avoid discussion of something just because its for a good cause. Helping MORE people on the same dollars.. and a better product if it can be done. Why would anybody not strive for that.