The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March of 2003. FEMA was created to assist in protecting the Nation against all types of hazards and disasters. Their mission states that FEMA "is to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters, by leading and supporting the Nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, recovery, and mitigation." More than 2,600 full time employees have taken this mission on as their primary duty.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast of the United States. In her wake, she left devastating damage amounting to over $81.2 billion dollars and leaving thousands homeless . Floods and high winds caused damage all over the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Critical injuries, death, and missing family members plagued the families of the Gulf Coast. New Orleans, Louisiana suffered the most damage after the levees holding back the waters of Lake Ponchartrain, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico failed. Due to the New Orleans's lower elevation and the natural shape of the city, the flood waters remained trapped within the city and continued to flow as the storm surge rose. As the flooding escalated, even the shelters that displaced residents turned to for safety had to be evacuated.
The disaster and damage continued well after the storm dissipated. Scams and fraudulent websites asking for money to support Hurricane Katrina relief programs appeared by the thousands. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that 60% of all relief programs advertised on the internet are fraudulent. As a result of the destruction of 30 oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the forced closure of oil refineries, gas prices all across the Nation skyrocketed. Southern economies that relied on forestry and oil tanked. Many who were left homeless because of the extensive flood damaged found no relief from their insurance companies who did not offer flood insurance in their areas. Displaced and disparaged, these Gulf Coast residents turned to our Nation's leaders for aid and assistance in restoring order to their lives.
After the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the Nation was torn and broken. Torn and broken economically; torn and broken physically; torn and broken against each other. Who was to blame? Why wasn't more preparation mounted as the storm approached our coastline? An ABC News Poll in September of 2005 (just a month after the devastation) showed that most citizens blamed the state and local governments over the federal government (75% and 67% respectively. However, 44% of those polled directly blamed President Bush's management of the crisis. Later, another poll showed that citizens widely did not agree on who was to blame for the mismanagement. The general consensus of mismanagement created awareness of the need for the development of clear public policies regarding emergency management and disaster relief. It was also apparent how badly organizations such as the Red Cross and FEMA were in need of additional staffing and resources in the event of another large-scale disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
FEMA organized a Mobile Home Deployment Strategy designed to help those who were unable to return to their homes. According to a release published by FEMA on April 20, 2006, 16,000 mobile homes -- including those stationed at Hope, Arkansas -- were ready to provide immediate housing to those whose homes were devastated by natural disasters . The original plan for Hope was to retain 5,300 to 7,000 trailers to be used to replace any housing units that might become damaged or uninhabitable in the upcoming hurricane season. However, federal, state, and local regulations were said to prevent placing mobile homes directly in floodplain areas. The communities that were left devastated in the wake of Katrina were all located in the floodplain. At staging locations all across the Nation, mobile homes, now affectionately called "FEMA Trailers," sat unused and unable to help those who needed them most. Only a small portion of these mobile homes were ever delivered to Katrina victims. Laws prevented FEMA from granting hurricane survivors more substantial housing, called FEMA cottages because the government agency is unable to provide "permanent" housing.
These manufactured homes, or mobile homes, were built according to strict specifications that FEMA issued manufacturers in 2005. FEMA guidelines included the exact dimensions, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the type of equipment that the kitchens should be equipped with, and the type of furniture that they should be furnished with. After requesting manufactured home builders to identify all potential inventory that could be used as temporary shelter, FEMA chose to purchase these mobile homes on custom orders rather than "off the lot" in the days following Hurricane Katrina. The additional time that it took to take inventories cut into time that manufacturers could have been producing the housing that FEMA already knew they required. As the FEMA trailers continued to pour into Hope's Municipal Airport in a steady stream and stagnated there, media coverage that began with an air of "hope" turned to coverage of FEMA's failure.
One of the largest controversies today, nearly two years after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, is what the government will choose to do with this emergency stockpile of temporary housing. Will they allow them to sit, tangled in the red tape while they deteriorate and sink into Hope's mud? Or will they begin to reallocate them to other areas of the country that are in such desperate need of housing? In October of 2006, South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson requested that these trailers be conveyed to Native American tribes to assist in the rising epidemic of homelessness that plagues the Native American Indians. FEMA has begun to work with the Department of the Interior to provide some housing assistance to those in need.
Today, FEMA is auctioning off the trailers that have had the most weather-wear on them. Auctions on the government website range from just over $5,000 for potentially water damaged trailers to $12,000 for trailers with "no obvious exterior damage." The mobile homes retailed originally for around $19,000. FEMA has no intention of disposing of or selling the mobile homes that are still in good condition.
Now, more than 10,000 mobile homes sit on the unused runways and property of the Hope, Arkansas Municipal Airport in Hempstead County, Arkansas. The tire ruts from hauling the "FEMA trailers" to their staging location are now overgrown and only a memory of the rush to get these mobile homes on location. They await another major National crisis. We can only hope that new laws and regulations will allow the agency to distribute them quickly to those who are in need. We can only hope that we have learned from Katrina.