Photos by AP Photo Archive
Workers put the final touches on the FEMA trailer city in Baker, La., Oct. 3, 2005, in preparation for the arrival of evacuees from New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The camp has nearly 600 trailers that house up to four people each.

FEMA falling behind promises in New Orleans

Dave Sheppard SHE04015@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Four months after Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleans residents are still without the temporary homes promised to them by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Four months is not all that long and a lot has happened in that four-month period,” said President George W. Bush. “A lot more is going to happen in the next four months, and then the next four months. I can’t wait to come back, and keep coming back and seeing the progress.”

However, many people are not satisfied with the pace of the progress being made.

Approximately 31,000 New Orleans homeowners have been authorized to receive mobile homes or trailers from FEMA and have not received them.

“I think there’s a broad consensus that FEMA really fouled up with this disaster,” said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. “I think that’s the universal conclusion people have reached.”

“We’re putting 500 [trailers] on site per day,” said Scott Wells, FEMA representative. “We’re doing everything we can as fast as we can with what we’ve got. I know it’s not good enough.”

A congressional panel was held to attempt to rectify this situation and so many others like it.

Nick Russo, FEMA’s coordinating officer in Mississippi, wants to set up a task force to coordinate the installation of electricity, water and sewer service to help speed up the mobile home installation.

But due to circumstances “beyond our control, we could request it, but we couldn’t mandate it,” said Russo. “That’s what’s holding the process up.”

“We discovered that some of your contractors don’t have enough crews to put these trailers on the ground,” Waters said to Russo. “Five months later, there should not be children living in cars. There should not be people without trailers.”

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., blames Bechtel National, the contractor responsible for the set up of the trailers, for much of the delays. “Bechtel has taken what should have been a task and dragged it out and made it a career for some of these people,’’ said Taylor. “Everything in [Bechtel’s] contract is an incentive to do it wrong.”

“We stand by our record,” said Danell Weaver, Bechtel spokesperson. “We understand there will always be frustration as long as people [need] temporary housing. We are not going to be satisfied until everyone who needs housing is housed.’’

“We have thousands of [trailer sites] along the Mississippi coast, but you need utilities and they need to be safe,’’ Russo said. “So I think that [is] one of the limiting factors.’’