E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Gerald Herbert / AP
Edwin D. Weber Jr. stands outside his FEMA trailer in New Orleans. Citing the 221 trailers left in the city as blight, New Orleans officials have given the last folks living in temporary FEMA trailers until the end of the year to move out or face fines. For many people, though, the white trailers are akin to permanent homes and they will find it hard to move out.
Gerald Herbert / AP
Edwin D. Weber Jr., left, stands inside the FEMA trailer he shares with his brother Richard Weber.
Gerald Herbert / AP
Dead flowers and the reflection of a home across the street are seen on the FEMA trailer of Edwin D. Weber Jr.
AP reports
Back in September, the New Orleans City Council said it was time to get rid of the FEMA trailers that have remained in the city since Hurricane Katrina. The problem is that many of the 221 remaining trailers are being used by residents as the only home they have.
"People are frustrated," said Councilman Jon Johnson, whose district includes hard-hit eastern New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward. "People do not like the idea of having these trailers right next to them five years after Katrina." Read the full story here.
Leave a Comment:
I feel so helpless for these poor people, especially the elderly with no place to go. I'm no expert in disasters, but it seems to me we as a Nation could have done more for our neighbors. If you have ever experienced the feeling of total dispair, then you know hos these people must feel.......I feel very fortunate today to have what I have.
Yeah well Tennessee took care of Nashville. Some of the people in Louisiana need to reach into their pockets and find a place in their heart to help their neighbors. I do feel if we help and help some of those people don't seek ways to help themselves.
Some will push the limit on anything...I do feel sorry for some, but these guys aren't elderly and the place looks like a pig sty......Yes, if they don't have a job, at least they can clean up after themselves....
good to see my tax dollars are paying for a couple of lazy fat guys to hang out all day being useless and ruin a FEMA trailer
Poor and desperate does not mean you have to be filthy and slovenly.....and is that a flat panel big screen they are watching while not even bothering to get out of the snuggie....????
I think if support was needed for these people a different pic should have been chosen. This is just filth and since that trailer was given to them to use they could have at least taken care of it.
What a joke. 5 years later? Enough with the handouts. Go do something with yourself.
I worked for FEMA during Katrina , Rita, & Wilma & it made me a better person to help those effected but if I'm not mistaken about a yr ago they were given the option of buying their trailer starting out at less than 10.00...I honsestly hope things turn around for them after all its been 5 yrs
Some people tend to get paralyzed when things get really bad. If they could change their situation, they would have done so. Kick them out without any place to go, and they just become homeless. There must be low-income housing available somewhere. The agencies need to get creative and solve this, and get rid of these trailers.