[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 162 (Friday, December 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H12036-H12037]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FEMA TRAILERS, BUT NOBODY'S HOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed 
the gulf coast as a category 4 storm. Due to the massive damage caused 
by one of the most costly natural disasters in our Nation's history, 
thousands of Louisiana and Mississippi residents whose homes were 
destroyed were forced to relocate to areas such as my home State of 
Arkansas. Many are still there today.
  As a result of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, commonly referred to as FEMA, purchased at least 20,000 brand-
new manufactured homes; and thousands of these homes, nearly 4 months 
later, have not reached those who need them, citizens of this country 
who lost their homes and everything that they owned on August 29, 2005.
  Instead, these homes are being stored by FEMA in five different so-
called staging areas, including staging areas in my congressional 
district near my hometown at the Hope Municipal Airport in Hope, 
Arkansas, at Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant 
near Texarkana, all of these staging areas some 450 miles from where 
the eye of the storm hit the gulf coast.
  Due to the inability of FEMA to provide displaced families with 
manufactured homes in a timely manner, staging areas are overflowing. 
For instance, at Hope Airport, the inactive runways and tarmacs are 
overloaded with manufactured homes, forcing the excess homes to be 
placed in the surrounding fields and pastures. These pastures and 
fields were not effectively prepared by FEMA for staging or storage, if 
you will. When the winter rains hit the inadequately prepared sites, 
many of the trailers carrying the manufactured homes will sink. This 
will result in even more unnecessary delays and additional work for a 
system that is badly flawed.
  I have written a letter to the acting FEMA director, David Paulson, 
requesting that he immediately review the apparently ineffective 
process of distributing the FEMA-purchased manufactured homes to the 
Hurricane Katrina evacuees who so desperately need them.
  As I drive throughout Arkansas's Fourth Congressional District, and 
in my very hometown of Prescott, Arkansas, I see these manufactured 
homes sitting empty; and I am appalled at the waste of taxpayer money 
and the lack of a timely response on behalf of FEMA and the Federal 
Government for those who desperately need housing for their families, 
with many residents literally still living in tents on the gulf coast 
nearly 4 months after the detrimental hurricane hit our gulf coast.

[[Page H12037]]

  As winter approaches and deadlines for all displaced residents from 
Louisiana and Mississippi living in hotel rooms to be moved into 
temporary housing quickly approaching, this process must be 
streamlined. It is unacceptable for American citizens who lost their 
homes and everything they owned in the hurricane to still be sleeping 
in tents when FEMA has thousands of brand-new empty manufactured homes 
for occupancy.
  Take a look here, Mr. Speaker. This is not in Hope, Arkansas. In 
fact, this is in my hometown of Prescott, Arkansas, some 16 miles away.

                              {time}  2315

  Here is what is going on. They deliver the homes to this staging area 
in Hope, Arkansas, 450 miles from the gulf coast. And as they deliver 
them down the interstate, they have got a banner on the back that says, 
Urgent, FEMA delivery. Urgent for what? To deliver it to a cow pasture?
  And a shingle blows off in transit. If one shingle is missing, they 
will not accept it at the FEMA staging area in Hope, Arkansas. So they 
turn around, drive back to my home town of Prescott, and they are 
leasing, literally leasing cow pastures, as you can see here, to store 
these homes until they can be repaired, while at the same time we have 
got families, we have got families, as Christmas approaches, as the 
holidays approach, sleeping in tents in Louisiana and Mississippi.
  Dennis Ramsey, the Mayor of Hope, Arkansas, was quoted in the 
Texarkana Gazette, December 15, saying FEMA estimated that 12,000 
mobile homes would be staged at the Hope site while FEMA leases the 
land at $25,000 a month for the next 2 years.
  The Associated Press said a FEMA spokesman said last week that 5,840 
mobile homes and 80 travel trailers are at Hope and the Texarkana sites 
along with more than 4,400 mobile homes and 4,200 travel trailers at 
the other staging areas.
  Mr. Speaker, I am asking this body, I am asking the acting director 
of FEMA: Please come to my home town, get these mobile homes and get 
them moved 450 miles down the road to the families who are living in 
tents and who so desperately need them in Mississippi and Louisiana.

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