FEMA Trailers For Sale Cheap! (Carcinogens Included)
You, too, can own one of these beautiful, slightly toxic, vehicles!
Are you in the market for a slightly used outdoor trailer? The government has thousands of them for sale at bargain basement prices. Of course, you might not want to breathe too much while you’re inside of them. It could kill you. From the AP:
The government is selling travel trailers to the public that were banned from use as emergency housing in disasters because many had toxic levels of formaldehyde.
Even though a storm the size of Katrina was bound to strike the Gulf Coast at some point, the best “plan” officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could come up with was to shelter displaced residents in 140,000 vacation trailers, most of them bought at the last minute at an average cost to the taxpayers of about $20,000 per.
For twenty thousand bucks a pop, you’d think we could have expected a decent product from trailer manufacturers. But instead, we got a bunch of toxic tin cans, full of dangerous amounts of formaldehyde. That’s right, the stuff undertakers use to preserve corpses. Seems that trailer companies were so busy trying to fill FEMA’s rush order, they might not have made sure all of their building materials were up to snuff.
Hmmm … sit idly by until disaster strikes, then go into panic mode and throw away massive amounts of of taxpayer money on a slapdash remedy that benefits a few already rich, politically-connected corporations but actually makes the situation worse rather than better. Yep, sounds like a pretty typical government solution to us.
Worst of all, when news of the formaldehyde contamination came out, FEMA and its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, chose to do their best Pentagon impersonations instead of coming clean. First they denied there was a problem, then they covered it up. Now, after blowing through billions, they’re trying to pawn the poisonous units off on a new batch of suckers for pennies on the dollar.
But what about the ones they don’t sell? There are tens of thousands of trailers rotting away around the country, and this fire sale is only slated to get rid of a few thousand of them. It turns out, FEMA could very well use the leftover units to … house victims of future disasters! Apparently, three years after Katrina, the agency hasn’t come up with a better plan for the next big one.
Despite promises never to use them again, the government now may house disaster victims in trailers if no alternative exists. Only the head of FEMA can approve the use of such trailers, and they would have to meet the agency’s standard for low formaldehyde levels.
Note: At the bottom of the AP article, the authors provide two links. One to a FEMA news release announcing the trailer sales. Another to a General Services Administration page with information on the auctions. Both links now take you to dead pages. Looks like people at FEMA are still trying to play the cover-up game. But unfortunately for them, they’re as bad at it as they are at, you know, managing emergencies.
Sir, I would like to add something to your post.
one: We in S. Mississippi were offering over 4,000 Fema units a month for only $14,000 through $ 16,000 each depending on make and model. Fema and GSA are the ones who told everybody that their purchase limit is at $20,000 each. We guess this is because they purchased the Fleetwoods at $17,800 a peice the night before Katrina hit land fall. Gulfstreams were sold at $10,200 each also the night before land fall. Gulfstream said that at this price that the units had no warranty on them, however all the parts and appliances do and some upto 3 years each. The Gulfstreams also had an open ended contract for the 04′ hurricans in Fl. for $10,400 each and had full warranty on them, through Best Buy’s RV. But Gulfstream sold straight in 05′.
two: Maintenance–Fema knew what an RV Tech. was and hired their own companies to do the maintenance on them. If you notice the GAO report that came out on Nov. 17, 2007 you should like it!!! The Companies that recieved the Maintenance contracts were hiring anyone for $40.00 per hour and the people that were hired to do plumbing were doing the electrical. Preventative maintenance was never done but yet FEMA paid them over 4 times what they could have replaced the trailers for. Now that FEMA has recieved the units back it is no longer Fraud but FEMA Stupidity instead. The contracts stated that the units must be like new condition with all parts back, but never done.
Three: Formaldehyde– The Formaldehdye is actually a liquid base chemical. What happens to a liquid base Chemical if while it is Curing and you add water to it…. It will admit the fumes as if it were brand new. Curing of Formaldehyde normally will take two to four months. But if you look at the instuctions to the Scissor Jacks on the Trailers it will state Warning: Although the Scissor Jack is able to left the trailer in the air do not do it fore you will bend the FRAME. And in Trailers you LP Gas, Electrical Lines and Water Lines go up the wall and inside to the connections. By bending the Frames to all Trailers and having people that did not know what they were doing FEMA is Acutally to Blame for the Formaldehyde and the Wrongful Deaths. Now these same units are being shipped where ever FEMA needs them from New York to Washington State and down to Texas and Iowa. 228-861-4641