More Speak About FEMA Trailer Woes
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Hurricane Katrina
From the comments section of our “FEMA Trailer Driver Speaks” post.
First, a resident of Louisana who lost everything, moved back and is ashamed with the response of the government:
I live in Slidell Louisiana and I am very angry about all of this. My house flooded and I lost everything as well as my daughter and my son in their respective homes. I ended up in Indiana (where people were extremely helpful to alot of Katrina victims) and I had to travel back and forth from Indiana to Slidell to get my house repaired. As I traveled I saw many sites where FEMA trailors were just parked in mass quantities while there are people living in cars and sheds just waiting and hoping for assistance from someone. The problem is that the left hand does not know what the right is doing with this whole process. Many Louisiana residents are coming back in Slidell but New Orleans residents that want to come back still have to look ahead at another hurricane season approaching and at a levee system that is not fixed. People have gone to other locations trying to get their lives back on track somehow and eight months later we are still doing that. I have moved back to Louisiana but question that decision every day since. Our government is sending troops and supplies overseas in mass quantity at great expense to our economy but cannot assist our own people that need so much help. They should be ashamed of the way they have handled this whole situation.
And then, another person who drove trailers:
On a daily basis I see about 100 – 150 flatbed train cars heading south through Hamilton, Ohio. Each car has 2 very cheaply made travel trailers straped to it. This line comes out of Chicago, IL so I can safely say these trains are from the Elkhart, IN area and heading for the New Orleans area.A few days after Katrina hit I volunteered to help take trailers to Baton Rouge. On September 9th I loaded up to deliver the first of two travel trailers to the Baton Rouge FEMA lot from a well known RV dealer self proclaiming to be “The Midwest’s Largestâ€Â? in Richmond IN. This dealer got a $14 million dollar contract with FEMA at the start. I found out the day I left with the first trailer that I would be getting paid $1200 per round trip. The drive from Hamilton, Ohio is a little over 900 miles to the drop lot in Baton Rouge. I spent $487 for fuel on the first trip and $423 for fuel on the second trip. Slept in the truck at the rest areas.
It pains me to see that these folks that have lost everything still have nothing due to government red tape.
Would I do it again? Yes, But it would be for the money.
Did I make a profit delivering these two trailers? NO. After learning that I would be getting paid I contacted my local Berean store and bought 400 Bible’s and on the second trip I used a key that will fit most storage compartments on a travel trailer and placed a Bible in every trailer I saw until all 400 were gone.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 and is filed under Hurricane Katrina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 24th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Justin,
I still thank that the answer to this is the Katrina Cottage.
April 24th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
I’m wondering if those 400 Bibles are sitting in 400 empty trailers.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:20 am
I AM SOOOO ANGRY!!!! just like everyone else, my parents and I have lost everything and it’s been 8 mths and we still feel like it happened yesterday! Of course I got my measily ten thousand for my house from FEMA( which doesn’t even begin to cover the content and of course, could never replace my pictures of my family and so forth), but my parents STILL have recieved nothing! And to top it off, I am getting screwed by my insurance and mortgage company(both are pointing fingers at eachother and neither want to pay for the losses) What happen to our great and powerful country coming to our rescue? Where is the money when we need it most? I’ll tell you where it is- THE CROOKED poloticians of LOUISIANA have taken it and spent it on their million dollars homes and cars! At this point, I have no faith in our state or our country to handle internal crisis.
April 27th, 2006 at 11:14 am
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May 11th, 2006 at 8:24 am
I would like to comment on Lena’s message. You are right on with everything that you said. My family and I have had to relocate to Indiana from Louisiana after Katrina. My son was only 4 months old when the hurricane hit and like everyone else we lost everything. We got less than $800 from Red Cross and we got 2 checks from FEMA for approx. $3000, but how far do they think that really goes? We have had to replace everything … clothes for 3 people (one of which is outgrowing clothes everyday), food, shelter, pots to cook that food, detergent to wash your clothes, electricity, a phone … the basic things are not even covered with that. And we are supposed to get help from FEMA for 18 months with rental assistance and now they are telling us (only 8 months later) that our assistance is ending. Where has all the funding and taxes that we have paid and donations that were given gone to???
May 18th, 2006 at 10:57 am
A woman from FEMA called me several days ago and made an appointment to recertify me for my FEMA trailer. I asked her how long I would be allowed to live in the trailer and she told me until my house was able to be lived in. I was told that I would be allowed to live in the trailer for 18 months or until my house was finished. FEMA is not telling people that the 18 months starts on the date the Hurricane Katrina struck land and not 18 months from your recieving the trailer. Some people have not even gotten a trailer yet or have just revieved one and little do they know that on February 28,2007 they will be out on the street. All of thoses trailers are still parked in lots on the side of the highway and another hurricane season is approaching. What is going to happen to the people that still have nothing after 9 months of cleanup. I went to Chalmette yesterday for the first time since Katrina. There are still houses blocking streets and everything is about the same as it was 8 months ago. The horrible stench of muck and everything wet is still in the air. My heart goes out to these residents. I thought I had it bad until I saw all of this with my own eyes. The military assistance that was here in Louisiana after the storm has been gone for quite awhile. People that came dowm here as public servants have all gone home, back to their own lives. When do we get a chance to have our lives back???Katrina took it all away and there is no help at all from the state or federal officials. WE HAVE ALL BEEN FORGOTTEN HERE!!!!!!!!
May 18th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
[...] From the comments section of a recent post about FEMA woes, we find these comments. [...]
March 16th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
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April 17th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Willing to purchase trailers. Please send contact information