From Katrina in 2005 to today. FEMA's betrayal leaves today's tornado victims shelterless.

[swordfish]

SF remembers back in 2005 when the South was hit by hurricane Katrina and the RV industry reacted faster than anything I had ever seen before and was able to deliver 200,000 RV's to FEMA in short order for disaster housing units in NOLA.  A plan was then initiated by the Bush administration to purchase and inventory 200,000 FEMA trailers on a rotating basis to be able to react quickly when Americans needed temporary housing.  These were the same units they had used since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.  (without any complaints)  The plan was running very successfully with FEMA storage lots spread out in various locations in the US with inventory ready to move whenever a hurricane approached.....until 2008......

Then the Sierra Club caught wind that there was Formaldehyde in the wood products used by manufacturers, (even though they were CARB compliant - and NOT TOXIC) and the rest is history.  Even though the very halls of Congress had higher levels of formaldehyde than the "toxic trailer", (Democrat Joe Donnelly actually used the EXACT SAME device in Congress that we had used to test the trailers in question and told the committee this data) the Democrats in Congress (Harry Waxman in particular) called the manufacturers to testify before the House giving the lawsuit happy lawyers plenty of ammunition to hold the industry liable and extract $42.6 million (literally) from the industry of which the "victims" they "represented" received little or in most cases - none.......

Thus ending the RV industry's relationship with FEMA, especially given the numerous hoops a manufacturer now has to jump through compliance-wise to produce a unit for FEMA that is literally nothing like the product consumers currently purchase and use.  FEMA tried to bring the industry back to the table during the Trump Administration, and SF was involved in those meetings with both FEMA and HUD but the industry didn't want to further participate with FEMA after the Katrina debacle that finally closed in 2013.  

So today in 2021, the 33,000 homeless families (resulting from last weeks tornadoes) are left to fend for shelter themselves because FEMA hasn't come up with any effective plan like the FEMA trailer plan that was incredibly successful until 2005.  Try to find an RV to purchase today and these folks will pay top dollar in today's RV market where units are in historically short supply and the manufacturers are producing at record levels. 

Sorry FEMA - you had your chance to defend an excellent and safe plan that the industry could help re-supply and keep Americans sheltered in their time of need, but nope - you failed.

Would make a great story if any real journalists still existed today......