Katrina isn’t over. I’m still losing trees that were damaged three years ago. Similarly, the fallout from FEMA’s well-intentioned but botched attempt at emergency relief lingers on like an old water oak shedding limbs each time the wind blows.

Now there’s a class action lawsuit against FEMA trailer manufacturers and the federal government over the health risks posed by high levels of formaldehyde found in the hastily constructed housing. Studies of over 600 FEMA trailers have shown that the cheap materials in paint, adhesives, and particle board emit enough formaldehyde through outgassing to cause respiratory problems, and prolonged exposure could even cause cancer.

In a classic case of darned if you do/darned if you don’t, the federal government’s rush to provide badly needed housing post-Katrina backfired. FEMA spent 2.6 billion dollars in no bid contracts to buy 102,000 new, white trailers from several manufacturers urged to hurry them down to the coast.

Today, around 30,000 people still live in FEMA trailers, down from a peak of over 144,000. The rest of the trailers have now been moved to camper graveyards like the eyesore off I-59 near Purvis, Mississippi, while FEMA tries to figure out where to go from here.

If you’re a taxpayer, this is costing you. The original $14,000-$18,000 per trailer price tag was just a down payment. After taking into account transportation, storage, water and power hookups, insurance, maintenance, and parking fees at various pastures and trailer parks throughout the South, a government watchdog agency figured the actual cost per trailer will eventually exceed $200,000.

The Government Accounting Office reported that in Kiln, Mississippi, a contractor was paid 1.8 million dollars to clean FEMA trailer septic tanks. After spending $300,000 on the work, he pocketed the remaining 1.5 million as profit. Another contractor was paid $245 per trailer per week to clean trailers on the coast. He subcontracted the job out for less than $50 per trailer.

Start to finish, there’s plenty of blame to go around in the FEMA trailer fiasco. But rather than heap invective on an already discredited agency, it’d be more productive to discuss what the proper role of the federal government should be in future disaster relief efforts.

FEMA’s mistake wasn’t a lack of trailer manufacturing oversight or a lack of accountability for funds spent maintaining and cleaning its trailers. FEMA’s biggest mistake was buying trailers in the first place. Although the federal government may have good intentions when it comes to disaster relief, Katrina showed just how inept the kneejerk reactions of a monstrous bureaucracy can be. The federal government has no Constitutional authority and no business owning and maintaining a hundred thousand campers.

If the public clamors for the federal government to do something after a natural disaster, it probably will, but the results won’t be pretty. Most politicians measure compassion in terms of dollars spent rather than needs wisely met. That’s how we ended up paying contractors $245 per trailer per week for cleaning instead of having the people living in them clean up after themselves.

Sadly, too, the federal government is learning that no matter how much it tries to help, there will always be some eager to sue the hand that feeds and shelters it. And it will be up to the taxpayers once again to shoulder the responsibility of a profligate Uncle Sam who is mightily generous with other people’s money.



Craig Ziemba is a military pilot who lives in Meridian. To have Craig speak at your event, email him at craigziemba@aol.com.