[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5815-5816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

  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, I rise today to try to bring about some common 
sense to a Federal agency known to many as the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency and known to others as FEMA.
  Many of you will recall, Mr. Speaker, that after that horrible 
hurricane that devastated the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina, back in 
August of 2005, FEMA went out and purchased tens of thousands of brand 
new mobile homes that were destined for storm victims after Hurricane 
Katrina.
  They came to Hope, Arkansas. We have got the old World War II proving 
grounds there, an old airport there with a lot of inactive runways and 
tarmacs, and they thought it was a good place to have as a so-called 
FEMA staging area, a place for them to bring mobile homes in transit on 
their way to storm victims on the gulf coast.
  Starting about October of 2005, they started arriving, and they 
continued to arrive, but none ever left. And this quickly became not a 
FEMA staging area but, rather, a FEMA storage area.
  This is an aerial photo that was taken this past Saturday, and these 
white dots, I mean, it is hard to understand and comprehend, but as you 
look at this aerial photo, what you are looking at is 8,420 brand new, 
fully furnished, never used, mobile homes that were destined for 
Hurricane Katrina victims that found themselves homeless.
  FEMA purchased them, and then they said, we won't put a mobile home 
in a flood plain. And of course, everybody who lost their home as a 
result of Hurricane Katrina lived in a flood plain. So they have 
remained stored at the airport in Hope, Arkansas, on this cow pasture, 
if you will, since about October of 2005; 8,420 brand new, fully 
furnished mobile homes.
  There is also approximately 16,000 camper trailers at the Hope 
airport. The camper trailers did work. They were used by storm victims, 
and they are now bringing them back to Hope. And if they need more than 
$1,500 worth of repair, they are auctioning them off. If they can 
repair them for less than $1,500, they are going to repair them there 
at the Hope airport and store them for future disasters. That is being 
a good steward of your tax money. That mission, that program makes a 
lot of sense.
  My problem with FEMA is this: There are 8,420 brand new, fully 
furnished, never used mobile homes sitting there, as you can see from 
this aerial photo, at the Hope airport in Hope, Arkansas. Now, let's 
fast forward.
  Well, one other point I would like to make, Mr. Speaker, is, about 8 
months ago, to try to get FEMA off high center and to move these homes 
to the people, I said they are going to start sinking into the cow 
pasture, thinking that would get FEMA off high center and they would 
move them to the storm victims.
  Instead, FEMA showed up at Hope with $7 million worth of gravel to 
put under them. I mean, this is so crazy, you can't make this stuff up.
  And then, fast forward, tragically to February 24, 12 days ago, where 
a tornado ripped through another part of my district, not Hope, 
Arkansas, but Dumas, Arkansas in DeSha County.
  This is one of 150 homes that have been either totally destroyed or 
heavily damaged. If there is any doubt about the amount of damage done, 
this is the Fred's Dollar Store and the grocery store in town and an 
18-wheeler.
  The bottom line is this: I immediately went to Dumas to be with the 
people there. I told them help was on the way. The Governor declared it 
a State disaster. The Governor called out 150 members of the National 
Guard; 150 homes heavily damaged or destroyed, 650 people out of work 
because their workplace has been heavily damaged or destroyed. No power 
for 6 days.
  And I asked FEMA to help; 12 days later, the President still has not 
declared Dumas and DeSha County a Federal disaster area.
  And what does the FEMA spokesman, John Philbin, say? March 7, 2007, 
Stephens Washington Bureau, in a story by Aaron Sadler, FEMA spokesman, 
John Philbin, says, ``The damages or need for Federal assistance are 
not readily apparent.'' If that is not damage that is readily apparent, 
I don't know what it is.
  I implore the President to declare Dumas and DeSha County a Federal 
disaster area. And I beg FEMA to begin to move some of these mobile 
homes to the people of Dumas who are without housing this evening.

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