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Millions Wasted on FEMA Trailers

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By Associated Press

M30o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Millions Wasted on FEMA Trailers

Published: Fri, November 16, 2007 - 7:16 pm
Last Updated: Fri, November 16, 2007 - 7:19 pm

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - What will $229 thousand cover in the
Mississippi real estate market?
Try a five-bedroom home in the capital city of Jackson. Or a
FEMA trailer in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged zone of the Gulf
Coast.
A government report issued today (Friday) says that because of
ineffective oversight by the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
about $30 million was spent on wasteful and improper or potentially
fraudulent payments to contractors between June 2006 and January
2007. The figure includes expenses for temporary trailer sites.
Some FEMA trailers are on private property like people's front
yards. Others are in group sites, or temporary trailer parks, that
were set up after the August 2005 storm to provide shelter to
people who lost apartments or rental homes.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office says Katrina damaged
or destroyed 134-thousand homes and 10-thousand rental units in
Mississippi alone.
The GAO report says FEMA will spend an average of $30-thousand
on each Katrina trailer on a private site through March 2009.
But at a temporary Katrina trailer park at the Port of Bienville
Park in Hancock County, the report says expenses for one trailer
could hit $229-thousand. That covers costs for FEMA to buy, haul
and install each trailer and to lay out, construct and maintain the
group site.
Only eight trailers were put on the site -- and the GAO says
maintenance costs are the same whether a site has one trailer or
50.
The GAO compared the cost of a Port of Bienville trailer to a
five-bedroom home in Jackson.
FEMA says it agrees with all of the GAO's recommendations in the
report, including one to evaluate whether money can be saved in the
placement and maintenance of trailers.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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