New Orleans getting rid of last FEMA trailers

[peejay 327]

New Orleans getting rid of last FEMA trailers

Officials say Hurricane Katrina reminders are blight on city

By CAIN BURDEAU

The Associated Press

updated 12/31/2010 12:28:55 AM ET

NEW ORLEANS — The era of the FEMA trailer — a symbol of the prolonged rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina — might be drawing to a close in New Orleans.

Citing the remaining 221 trailers as blight, New Orleans officials have told the last remaining residents to be out by the start of 2011 or face steep fines.

New Orleans once had more than 23,000 FEMA trailers, and for many people still living in them, they are akin to permanent homes. These residents say they will find it hard to make the city's deadline.

Edwin Weber Jr., 62, lives with his brother in a trailer crammed with stuff. He was seething at a "notice of violation" letter taped to his door shortly before Christmas.

The letter said he would be fined — up to $500 a day — unless he took "immediate action" to move out. He said the notice was "worthy of Ebenezer Scrooge himself."

Engulfed by vines, Weber's trailer looks like a permanent fixture in the Gentilly Woods neighborhood in front of a home his family has owned since the 1950s. The house, Weber acknowledged, is still in bad shape.

"I haven't got the gas on yet. But I got water and electricity, so it is livable," he said, looking at the battered home. He reckoned he could move into the house, if they were forced to.

The house was flooded by 6 feet of water, but after Katrina, he opted not to take federal housing aid, administered through the state's Road Home program, because he didn't trust the bureaucracy handling the money. Insurance claims have paid for some repairs to the house, he said.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency offered to house them outside the city, but they refused.

"I don't know what the big deal about trailers is," he said. "It's not like a hundred trailers is going to make the city look any worse than it is. It's not like the city has been fixed and repaired and these are the remaining eyesores."

City takes tough stance

Ann Duplessis, the city's deputy chief administrative officer, said city officials will be compassionate in considering each resident's case but hope to have most of the trailers removed within three months. "There may be some lingering, for that little old lady who has no place and no money," she said.

Still, she said the city will take a tough stance. "These trailers were meant to be temporary, not a permanent fixture."

She said many remaining trailer residents simply have not done enough to get out and refused to consider alternative housing. "People have to assume some responsibility for their decision," she said.

Still, she said the city will take a tough stance. "These trailers were meant to be temporary, not a permanent fixture."

She said many remaining trailer residents simply have not done enough to get out and refused to consider alternative housing. "People have to assume some responsibility for their decision," she said.

FEMA installed about 200,000 temporary housing units — travel trailers, park models and mobile homes — on the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the region in 2005. Louisiana got about 91,860 units and Mississippi about 44,000. There are 106 FEMA trailers left in Mississippi. Across Louisiana, about 520 remain.

According to FEMA, New Orleans got 23,314 trailers.

'Turn a page on Katrina'

The few remaining are on the hit list of Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who's vowed to rid New Orleans of blight by eliminating 10,000 broken-down properties over the next three years.

"This administration wants to turn a page on Katrina," said Gary Clark, a Dillard University political science professor. "The FEMA trailer has become an icon of Katrina."

But some advocates fear Landrieu's zeal to eliminate blight will hurt poor people struggling to find their way in New Orleans more than five years after Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city in August 2005.

"The blight eradication program, if not done correctly, can become a poor-person eradication program," said Lance Hill, the executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a race relations center based at Tulane University.

He said many poor people were not given the help they needed to rebuild. "We never had a resettlement agency in this city for five years."

The city is warning trailer residents that they are in violation of city zoning ordinances and that waivers granted after Katrina will not be renewed. A letter that Weber received said the city understands "the challenges residents have endured post-Katrina" but that the trailers are blight.

Trailers turn grimy

The trailers do stand out. Beaten up by weather and use, the white trailers often are streaked in grime and intrude on sidewalks.

"I am very, very serious about the need to get these trailers out of the city of New Orleans," said Jon Johnson, a city councilman for eastern New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward. "My mother-in-law has a trailer right next to her house blocking the sidewalk. That needs to go."

He said deadlines to remove trailers have been extended in the past, but the city should not back down this time.

On the other hand, he also doesn't think the city should hurl trailer-dwellers onto the street. "We have to make sure that when we impose these deadlines on residents they have somewhere to go," he said. "We have to realize that there are people in these predicaments who have no where else to go."

On a street not far from Weber, Paul Delatte, a 50-year-old carpenter living in a FEMA trailer, was much further along in rebuilding his home than were the Webers. He said the home should be done by the end of January.

Delays in getting rebuilding aid slowed the work, Delatte said. He didn't have flood insurance on his house.

"I thought the rebuilding would be done within a year," he said over the sound of a nail gun and electric saw coming from inside his home. "You can't build anything without money."

He was grateful for the trailer, but he was looking forward to moving on. "They want me to be out of it. I want to be out of it. The neighborhood would love to see it gone," he said. "There's nothing I can do about it until I'm finished."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40858571/ns/us_news-life#

[Danno 1,228]

Heres what a real flood looks like.

The Johnstown Flood (or Great Flood of 1889 as it became known locally) occurred on May 31, 1889. It was the result of the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam situated 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall. The dam's failure unleashed a torrent of 20 million tons of water (4.8 billion U.S. gallons; 18.2 million cubic meters; 18.2 million hectolitres). The flood killed over 2,200 people[1] and caused US$17 million of damage. It was the first major disaster relief effort handled by the new American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, victims suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempt to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted a major development in American law—state courts' move from a fault-based regime to strict liability.

On May 28, 1889, a storm formed over Nebraska and Kansas, moving east. When the storm struck the Johnstown-South Fork area two days later it was the worst downpour that had ever been recorded in that part of the country. The U.S. Army Signal Corps estimated that 6 to 10 inches (150 to 250 mm) of rain fell in 24 hours over the entire region. During the night small creeks became roaring torrents, ripping out trees and debris. Telegraph lines were downed and rail lines were washed away. Before daybreak the Conemaugh River that ran through Johnstown was about to burst its banks.

On the morning of May 31, 1889, in a farmhouse on a hill just above the South Fork Dam, Elias Unger, the president of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club at the time, awoke to the sight of Lake Conemaugh swollen after a night-long heavy rainfall. Unger ran outside in the still-pouring rain to assess the situation and saw that the water was nearly cresting the dam. Unger quickly assembled a group of men to try to save the face of the dam by trying to unclog the spillway which was blocked by the broken fish trap and debris caused by the swollen waterline. Other men tried digging another spillway at the other end of the dam to relieve the pressure but without success. Most remained on top of the dam, some plowing earth to raise it, while others tried to pile mud and rock on the face to save the eroding wall.

John Parke, an engineer for the South Fork Club, briefly considered cutting through the dam's end, where the pressure would be less, but decided against it. Twice, under orders from Unger, Parke rode on horseback to the nearby town of South Fork to the telegraph office to send warnings to Johnstown explaining the critical nature of the eroding dam. But the warnings were not passed onto the authorities in town since there had been many false alarms in the past of the South Fork Dam not holding against flooding, but which it did. Unger, Parke, and the rest of the men continued working to save the face of the dam until they were exhausted in which they abandoned their efforts at around 1:30 p.m. when they felt that their work was futile and the dam would collapse at any minute. Unger ordered all of his men to fall back to high ground on both sides of the dam where they could do nothing but wait. During the day in Johnstown, the situation worsened as water rose to as much as 10 feet (3.0 m)[3] in the streets of Johnstown.

At around 3:10 p.m. (15:10), the South Fork Dam burst, allowing the 20 million tons of Lake Conemaugh to cascade down the Little Conemaugh River. It took about 40 minutes for the entire lake to drain of the water. The first town to be hit by the flood was the small town of South Fork. Fortunately, the town was on high ground and most of the people ran farther up the nearby hills when they saw the dam literally spill over. Despite 20 to 30 houses being destroyed or washed away, only four people were killed.

On its way downstream towards Johnstown, the crest picked up debris, such as trees, houses, and animals. At the Conemaugh Viaduct, an 78-foot (24 m) high railroad bridge, the flood temporarily was stopped when debris jammed against the stone bridge's arch. But after around seven minutes, the viaduct collapsed, allowing the flood to resume its course. Because of this, the force of the surge gained renewed impetus, resulting in a stronger force hitting Johnstown than otherwise would have been expected. The small town of Mineral Point, one mile (1.6 km) below the Conemaugh Viaduct, was hit with this renewed force. About 30 families lived on the village's single street. After the flood, only a bare rock remained. About 16 people were killed.

The village of East Conemaugh was next to be hit by the flood. One witness on high ground near the town described the water as almost obscured by debris, resembling "a huge hill rolling over and over". Locomotive engineer John Hess, sitting in his locomotive, heard the rumbling of the approaching flood and, correctly assuming what it was, tried to warn people by tying down the train whistle and racing toward the town by riding backwards to warn the residents ahead of the wave. His warning saved many people who were able to get to high ground. But at least 50 people died, including about 25 passengers stranded on trains in the town. Hess himself miraculously survived despite the flood picking up his locomotive and tossing it aside.

Just before hitting the main part of the city, the flood surge hit the Cambria Iron Works at the town of Woodvale, taking with it railroad cars and barbed wire. Of Woodvale's 1,100 residents, 314 died in the flood. Boilers exploded when the flood hit the Gautier Wire Works, causing black smoke seen by the Johnstown residents.

Some 57 minutes after the South Fork Dam collapsed, the flood hit Johnstown. The inhabitants of Johnstown were caught by surprise as the wall of water and debris bore down on the village, traveling at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and reaching a height of 60 feet (18 m) in places. Some, realizing the danger, tried to escape by running towards high ground. But most people were hit by the surging floodwater. Many people were crushed by pieces of debris, and others became caught in barbed wire from the wire factory upstream. Those who sought safety in attics, or managed to stay afloat on pieces of floating debris, waited hours for help to arrive.

An artist's rendition of the scene at the Stone Bridge

At Johnstown, the Stone Bridge, which was a substantial arched structure, carried the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Conemaugh River. The debris that was carried by the flood formed a temporary dam, stopping further progress of the water. The flood surge rolled upstream along the Stoney Creek River. Eventually, gravity caused the surge to return to the dam, causing a second wave to hit the city, but from a different direction.[4] Some people who had been washed downstream became trapped in an inferno as debris that had piled up against the Stone Bridge caught fire, killing at least 80 people. The fire at the Stone Bridge burned for three days. Afterwards, the pile of debris there covered 30 acres (12 ha), and reached 70 feet (21 m) in height. The mass of debris took three months to remove, because of the masses of steel wire from the ironworks binding it. Dynamite was eventually used to clear it.[5] As of 2010, the Stone Bridge is still standing, and is often portrayed as one of the images of the flood.

And my fav part.

The "Johnstown Flood" Tax

As a result of the damage from the 1936 flood, the Pennsylvania General Assembly imposed an emergency tax on all alcohol sold in the Commonwealth. The "temporary" 10% tax was initially intended to help pay for clean up, recovery, and assistance to flood victims. The tax still exists and in 1963 the tax was even raised to 15% and again in 1968 to 18% (not including the statewide 6% sales tax). The nearly $200 million collected annually no longer goes to flood victims, however, instead going into the general fund for discretionary use by lawmakers.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

[SuperDuper! 230]

Those trailers really were trash.

[peejay 327]

And my fav part.

The "Johnstown Flood" Tax

As a result of the damage from the 1936 flood, the Pennsylvania General Assembly imposed an emergency tax on all alcohol sold in the Commonwealth. The "temporary" 10% tax was initially intended to help pay for clean up, recovery, and assistance to flood victims. The tax still exists and in 1963 the tax was even raised to 15% and again in 1968 to 18% (not including the statewide 6% sales tax). The nearly $200 million collected annually no longer goes to flood victims, however, instead going into the general fund for discretionary use by lawmakers.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

Bleeding hearts never die.

Especially when they are buried in bundled legislation with deceptive names that nobody reads.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

New Orleans sure is a welfare town.

[Amby 490]

They move all of those trailers to empty farm land in southern ms. You can see them lined up for miles along the side of the interstate. It's a crazy sight.

Edited January 3, 2011 by Amby

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Katrina was a wonderful thing. It opened up people's eyes to what many knew all along... that NOLA is America's rotting hell hole. I mean that in city/people. The only thing they keep looking great is the French Quarter for tourism... outside of that, you'd think you were in ghettoville USA... Hell, even Detroit looks better than NOLA in a lot of instances.

[peejay 327]

Katrina was a wonderful thing. It opened up people's eyes to what many knew all along... that NOLA is America's rotting hell hole. I mean that in city/people. The only thing they keep looking great is the French Quarter for tourism... outside of that, you'd think you were in ghettoville USA... Hell, even Detroit looks better than NOLA in a lot of instances.

Third world thrills...right here in the good old USA. NOLA is filling up with illegal aliens. I see them rolling east out of Texas down I-10. It's so obvious that the US Border Patrol (ICE) regularly patrols I-10 in Lake Charles and I see them with the local cops when they pull over vehicles.

Edited January 3, 2011 by peejay

[Ban Hammer 13,671]

They move all of those trailers to empty farm land in southern ms. You can see them lined up for miles along the side of the interstate. It's a crazy sight.

sounds like a tornado magnet.