Infamous FEMA trailers to Haiti?

[hiker chick]

Over four years after Hurricane Katrina, these 100,000 trailers are an albatross.

Click here to see it


Push to send FEMA trailers to Haiti stirs backlash

Bidding is under way in an online government-run auction to sell the trailers in large lots at bargain-basement prices — something the RV industry fears will reduce demand for new products. Some of the bids received so far work out to less than $500 for a trailer that would sell for about $20,000 new.

Lobbyists for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association — which includes some major manufacturers in Elkhart, Ind., among them Gulf Stream — have been talking with members of Congress, the government and disaster relief agencies to see if it would be possible to send the trailers to Haiti instead.

[i]"This isn't really the best time for the RV industry to have very low-priced trailers put out onto the market," said the group's spokesman, Kevin Broom.

[mikeschn]

That's disgusting...

Does anyone have a closeup of one of these trailers?



Mike...

[Miriam C.]

Can't decide who I feel the sorriest for the Haitians or the Americans. Seems both need them but they are poison.

And have you ever been in one of those in the heat...........Stupid is as stupid does......k

[iplay10us2]

It sounds all well and good to ship them to Haiti, but the actual logistics of getting them there is the real problem/deal breaker.

I think that the deal now is that whoever buys them has to buy every single one of them, and that will cost millions.

The trailers have certainly benefited the economy of Hope, AR because of the storage fee charged to the government, but it's time for them to go. I would like to see them moved to places that are still affected by Hurricane Katrina since they will likely not go to Haiti.

[hiker chick]

At $500 a piece, they may as well give them to the military for target practice.

[mikeschn]

I found this...

[cuyeda]

Does anyone have a closeup of one of these trailers?
Mike...

Here ya go...


Sorry wrong picture.


http://www.governmentauctions.org

[rebapuck]

The government should sell them. Even $500 apiece (times 100,00) and it should go itoward paying off the national debt. Now, that's an albatross.

[mikeschn]

Quite frankly, I think they did a better job on the refugee shacks after the S.F. earthquake in the early 1900's...

[S. Heisley]

Mike wrote:

Quite frankly, I think they did a better job on the refugee shacks after the S.F. earthquake in the early 1900's...

From the looks of your picture, I agree!

[mikeschn]

Here's another shot...



Mike...

[Miriam C.]

Where ya gonna get all that wood?

[xrover]

formaldehyde was identified as a health risk to humans as far back as 1984, so how is it they are used in the manufacture of trailers today?

[doug hodder]

:thumbsup: Where ya gonna get all that wood?

Back then, you could actually log without all the Eco Rads busting your chops or sabotaging equipment. and OSHA wasn't watching every mill or jobsite...I also think a lot of people subjected to that disaster didn't expect that the GOVT. was going to take care of everything for them either.

Natural disasters happen, people are subjected to them depending on where they live. The shelter provided with those trailers, regardless of the ply used was shelter. It wasn't meant as a permanent fixture. Kind of a catch 22...no trailers or effort...someone would catch hell. Give them a trailer.. and they complained that it wasn't good enough...someone still catches hell. It beat nothing. Maybe next time give everyone a tent...much cheaper. The killer is....some that complained about the ply used, probably smoke 2 packs a day....

[angib]

I lived for a while in Halifax, NS and some of you may know that during WWI an ammunition ship blew up in the harbour - well, it caught fire first and a lot of the population was watching it when it exploded, so the injuries were horrific. It was the largest man-made explosion prior to Hiroshima and levelled a fair bit of North Halifax.

What is fascinating is that the same day the people of Boston, 700 miles away, despatched a relief train containing what was effectively a complete eye surgery hospital as well as a huge quantity of glass to replace the broken panes in the houses still standing, plus many other relief supplies and workers.

I guess there were telephones in use between the two cities at that time, but I bet a lot of the communication actually went via telegraph. So it shows that in 13 hours, it was possible to identify the immediate needs, transmit that to Boston (who presumably had already indicated their willingness to help), collect the people and equipment in Boston and load it on a train. Could we do that today, with vastly better communications?

And if you want a warm glow to end on, in the 1970s Nova Scotia restarted a tradition of giving the City of Boston a Christmas tree as thanks for their charity.

Andrew