Heckuva Job
By Jesus, this is pathetic:
Federal health officials have confirmed that high levels of formaldehyde gas pose health risks to hurricane victims housed in 38,000 government trailers on the Gulf Coast, and will recommend that occupants be moved before temperatures rise this spring and summer, Bush administration officials disclosed yesterday. . . .
The findings cap nearly two years of internal government deliberation over the housing of hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors in the trailers, and come 23 months after FEMA first received reports of health problems and test results showing formaldehyde levels at 75 times the U.S.-recommended workplace safety threshold.
And this a day after FEMA announced that unused trailers — purchased via no-bid contracts following the 2005 disaster — would be offered to people whose homes were obliterated by last week’s tornadoes. Isn’t there some spoiled milk, rancid meat, and expired pharmaceuticals we could send them as well?
Meantime, FEMA is still offering 1000 mobile homes to Indian tribal governments. Though FEMA insists that the mobile homes have stricter standards on formaldehyde than the trailers, there’s reason to believe that levels are still high enough to cause respiratory and throat problems in some residents.
More on the trailer/mobile home issue here.