HAMMOND, La. – Dozens of families evacuated from a FEMA trailer park that had been plagued by sewage leaks and power outages were in temporary homes Monday, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had requested work permits to dismantle the site this week.
Many of the residents were moved to other FEMA locations in the Hammond area, agency spokesman Manuel Broussard said.
“Some families were concerned about schooling for their children, and we have found housing for them close to their schools,” Broussard said. Likewise, he said, the agency has kept people who had jobs in Hammond close to town.
For Allsee Tobias, though, it still felt like yet another failure of the federal government to help Hurricane Katrina victims, even if the goal was to safeguard their health.
“Pack and pray. That’s what they told us,” said Tobias, who lost his New Orleans home in Katrina’s flooding and then was told to leave his Hammond trailer over the weekend.
FEMA abruptly closed down the mobile home park because of ongoing problems with raw sewage that pours onto the grass. FEMA said electricity was cut off last week for the third time since Oct. 12; Broussard said the landowners hadn’t paid bills on time, while Frank Bonner, a co-owner of the site, said FEMA hadn’t paid on time.
By late Sunday, 48 of the 58 households had places to go to, with many of those households moving on to other FEMA sites, the agency said. Monday morning, Broussard said that Catholic Charities, a Catholic social work outreach program, had offered to temporarily house the 10 remaining households.
Displaced residents said they questioned the genuineness of the sudden concern for their health because the stink of sewage has been a nuisance for about a year.
“It’s very unhealthy. The question is why did it take a year?” said Ron Harrell.
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