Ala. town hit by tornadoes bans FEMA trailers

[unionmom]

James Ruston's house was knocked off its foundation by tornadoes that barreled through town last month and is still uninhabitable. He thought help had finally arrived when a truck pulled up to his property with a mobile home from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Then he got the call: Single-wide mobile homes, like the FEMA one, are illegal in the city of Cordova.

The city's refusal to let homeless residents occupy temporary housing provided by FEMA has sparked outrage in this central Alabama town of 2,000, with angry citizens filling a meeting last week and circulating petitions to remove the man many blame for the decision, Mayor Jack Scott...

link to full article

 

[naturegirl]

That's horrible, they can do a temporary waiver.

 

[ShoeDiva]

I can see where he does not want what happened in NO (trailers are stiil there) to happen to his town, but good gosh, grant a temporary waiver with a deadline. Obviously what he has done for some gov't buildings. I am guessing re election is not in his future.

 

[MamaHog]

That's crazy! I agree with SD, give them a waiver and a deadline!

 

[deewee]

So, according to the article, he'd rather have people living in tents??? How is that going to look any better, or attract the "kind" of people he wants to live in their city?

 

[unionmom]

I believe his thinking on that is that people are more likely to move faster to rebuild if they are living in tents vs. becoming complacent if they are in trailers. There are people, 6 years later, still in trailers in NO.

I agree that he's being an arrogant tool, though. No reason not to work up an emergency exception to the rule with a deadline. Even if it is something along the lines of 12 months with a review to grant additional 4-6 month periods or whatever. It's beyond heartless to ignore the needs of these people in this manner.