More than a year after displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina first said that formaldehyde in government-issued travel trailers was making them sick, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has arranged for air quality testing to begin this week.
FEMA has arranged for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct tests for formaldehyde in a random sampling of 500 of the 46,000 travel trailers still being used by hurricane victims more than two years after the August 29, 2005, hurricane made landfall, nearly destroying New Orleans and leaving devastation across hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast region.
CDC will conduct testing beginning this Friday and continuing for the next five weeks, according to a government press release. Afterward, each resident whose travel trailer was tested will receive the results for that trailer and FEMA will issue a final report in May.
Formaldehyde, a common chemical used in many wood products as well as embalming, has been linked to cancer and respiratory problems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet the CDC says it has no guidelines on how much formaldehyde is dangerous.
Henry Falk, director of the CDC’s Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention, said there are no existing standards for gauging air quality in trailers and “no sharp, direct way” of predicting the health effects of formaldehyde.
“Some people will react at higher levels. Some people might react to formaldehyde at lower levels,” he told reporters in New Orleans. — Associated Press
“FEMA’s first priority has been and continues to be the health and safety of temporary housing residents,” said FEMA Administrator David “Duct Tape” Paulison.
Testing had been postponed until this month because “we wanted to make sure we had a test that was scientifically based, that we had a credible agency that really understood formaldehyde to come in and do this,” said FEMA Administrator David Paulison. — USA TODAY
The real reason testing was postponed was FEMA’s lawyers stonewalled for a whole year, preventing the agency from doing anything to mitigate the threat, not even testing the trailers. Because they care so much about helping people.
Since then FEMA has been moving anyone out of travel trailers who complains about formaldehyde and asks to move. More than 6,500 people have such outstanding requests, but FEMA has been able to move only 800 people a week. And requests to move continue to come in.
And here is another problem. After two years, why is anyone still living in a travel trailer? I can’t imagine not wanting to do something to better my circumstances in two whole years. Yet, with government offering to pay for whatever people ask, and not asking too many questions about what they do with the money, it’s easy for disaster victims to become dependent on the government to provide for their every need for as long as they can get away with it.
Fortunately, for some victims, the government’s botched responses to the disaster and its aftermath were a clear wake-up call.
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Why???
Dec 19, 2007
They have thier population control numbers they must reach. They simply don’t care.
Doc
Dec 19, 2007
Michael – no mechanism [no email address or contact form] to send you this link, but I thought you and your readers would find it interesting:
Doc
Dec 20, 2007
Link to commentary re: privacy and security
To Doc
Dec 20, 2007
Thanks Doc. People of America don’t become the next person in a coffin for the corrupt a-holes who just don’t care. Knowledge is power.
Never again
Dec 22, 2007
Be aware of these things or they will just walk allover you. This is America not China or a 3rd world country. Do the research and save yourselves people. Take a stand before more end up in the grave yard. It is common sense!!!
Bob
Dec 22, 2007
Blah, blah, blah. Just thought I’d do my part to add to the sensless drivel.
If you don’t want to breath formaldehyde, build your own house out of dirt and sticks like animals with brains do…… you useless, helpless sonsabitches. I fart in your general direction. Someday soon, mother nature will eat these people for breakfast and I will only shed a tear for the fact that there were so many that didn’t have the brain of a rodent.
Ray
Dec 23, 2007
One does have to wonder why nobody involved in this issue has apparently ever heard of ventilation. I notice that many of the people on TV complaining about this talked about basically sealing themselves in the trailers 24/7. From what I can tell they never actually saw a need to leave the trailer. One has to wonder if this inactivity has as much to do with the problems as anything.
Also the trailers now have had a while to hopefully ventilate. So one has to wonder how much good the test would be now. If the trailers have not been ventilated all this time, I would assume there are worse things in the air than formaldehyde.
Bob & Ray
Dec 23, 2007
I bet these people could build thier own houses out of mud but, thier are housing and zoning laws so, that is not an option for them. Should they re-write the laws??? Ventilation does work but, what if it is raining or cold?? There probably are worse things then formaldehyde. What would you do if you lost everything???? Insurance will not cover it all. People need to consider thier options. Anything could happen at any time.
Ray
Dec 23, 2007
Maybe they could build their own houses, but you can bet they won’t. That is kind of my point.
Bob
Dec 24, 2007
If a tree blows over with a bird’s nest in it, that bird just lost everything. It doesn’t whine about it, it just starts building another nest or it’s not going to have one.
A squirrel caches food all over the place, more than it needs, because it knows that some of it might be ruined or stolen and it wants to make sure it has enough to make it through the winter. It has to think ahead or it dies. These are simple animals, free animals, and they deal with this stuff everyday. They don’t cry about the changes, they just adapt and try to take advantage of them. If they can’t, they die out like millions of other species have done before them. It’s not tragic, it’s just the way it is. Keeps life at it’s best and strongest.
We seem to have lost that basic will to survive. Don’t think it will be long before some of the other species on this planet who have been squeezed by us, figure out that we have become defenseless lumps of food and that a good set of teeth and claws is now more than enough to have a free human lunch. We used to be a fiercesome creature capable of killing anything with a sharp stick and they were afraid of us for good reason. Those days are gone.
Good ideas but,,,,,
Dec 24, 2007
Average pay out by insurance companies to Katrina survivors $64,000. I wonder what they could build for that. Maybe they are too old or don’t know how. Maybe they could educate them. People need to learn to make do. If they survived that is great you can never put a price on that.
Ray
Dec 24, 2007
I am sorry, but that is paid out to people who were paid. And that was an average. Don’t forget some people lost some pretty big places. So a million dollar payment could offset a lot of very little payments. More important a payment of zero is not even in the average as that is not a payment.
Many people who did have insurance got nothing because their policies had exclusions that frankly I doubt anyone including the insurance companies knew applied. Then the execs basically said “hey this will be a lot of money how do we save our big bonuses” and the lawyers found a way.
But even more people had no insurance, and that is who we are really talking about. They didn’t plan before hand and then basically didn’t make any effort to help themselves afterwards. The teams I worked with helped a lot of people. There were many who we were glad to help. The were trying to help themselves, and were exceedingly greatful. On the other hand there were the about half who had not done one darned thing to help themselves and just expected you to take care of the whole thing. There was one able bodies guy who stands out. He sat in the yard and watched while who demoed the inside of his house and built it back. His only comment was when we were going to come back and put up trim on the inside of the house and we thought that we might have to call the police for help when we informed him that his house was now fully livable and that was up to him to do. (While we were doing his house the senior citizen with a walker lady down the block who we have done her house came down with pitcher after pitcher of iced lemon-aid; I think as fast as her freezer and a couple of the neighbor’s freezers who she mooched ice off of would make ice. He was sure that this was for him too.)
Ray
Dec 24, 2007
Bob:
There is a lot of truth to the statement in that country song that “a country boy can survive”. As a guy who grew up in the country I can tell you that doing so has its down sides at time, but we have skills that we can call upon when we need them that city people don’t even know exist.
As I hinted at above I went to Katrinaland a number of times to help. The first time within days afterwards. That time we were just making it so that the cops and fire people would have a place to live and operate from. I found out very quickly that my cityfied fellow team members were very much willing to help, but kind of really were at a loss as to how to do tings without modern items such as power and running water. I will say that with the exception of the members from Western Europe the foreign members of the teams would have made great hill billies
But even the cops and the fire guys who were from the city were pretty much out of it. Now some of it was the overwhelmingness of it. But it also seemed like they went to great effort to be helpless.
Key to survival
Dec 25, 2007
They key to survival is knowing and being prepared for anything. Another good example was John Denver’s song “Thank God I’m a country boy’. No matter what comes your way, you just have to do your best and make due. It is important to be creative or you just won’t make it. These people may not be able to keep up with the Jone’s but survival is the key so, they should be thankful for being alive to be able to see another day.
N
Dec 26, 2007
People are clearly able to survive, since they have made it for the past two years, but the point that many people have missed is that the government, which is there to SERVE THE PEOPLE seems to be incapable (and at this point, downright unwilling) of helping those who need it most. if the state of Louisiana doesn’t have the means to take care of the situation, the federal government should have taken control, but the lack of interest by this administration in actually doing anything useful has caused real harm to many people, I know that last phrase is an understatement.
anonymous
Dec 26, 2007
What about the $1 million+, medicine, water, food, doctors and mobile hospitals that were offered by cuba and venezuela that were rejected by the government? that could have helped not only on the immediate need of the affected, but also as a spring board for more diplomatic relations with countries that we don’t have good relations with.
Ray
Dec 26, 2007
Who is downright unwilling is a lot of the people.
The government may be there to serve the people, but part of that is not just being a nanny. If the state of Louisiana can’t deal with the problem at this point then the Federal Government SHOULD NOT take control. The people of Louisiana should kick the existing government out and get a government which can deal with the problem.
Of course I still wonder why it is that we are at all helping with the “recovery” in the 9th ward. We have spent huge amounts of money and will spend more, and for what. To build more homes in a location where it is inevitable that they will once again get flooded. Remember the pictures of the water over the roofs of the houses in this area? That water was not even actually sea level. It was not even at the level of a low tide and it was still over the roofs. That should tell you something. This is not a location we should permit people to live. Now Mississippi got hit with a hurricane and a storm surge that was in places 11 foot high. That is one thing. We talk about Katrina taking out New Orleans, but it basically missed the city. Instead the levies just gave way. And the coast is approaching New Orleans. In a few decades it will be an island. Islands which are below sea level should not be allowed to exist, and can not exist for long.
I know that I will catch it for this statement, but it is not like most of these people had jobs that required them to be in the area. Pay attention to the news, most of these people were on public aid. They could live on the public dole anywhere. Certainly resettling them in the 9th ward is a really dumb idea. It just means that in a few years, probably much less than a decade we will be spending billions more on this area and we will have another cemetery full of “hurricane victims”. Just like we at times need to say to a wino on the street, “I know you want to get some booze, but I won’t help you do it” we need to say no to these people for their own good.
N
Dec 27, 2007
@ Ray:
That is a very uncaring thing to say, and though I agree with you in the fact that much of people’s individual success is dependent on their self-motivation and desire to do well, I also must give equal acknowledgment to the reality that their ability to succeed is tightly related to complicated socio-economic problems that I think anybody can agree will not be solved by giving up and letting them fend for themselves.
regarding the state/federal levels of aid and government, it is a basic and very important idea that when organizational and financial resources have been exhausted from the scene of a local situation, it is the obligation for higher levels of government (county, state, then federal government) to intervene and help out. I doubt that very anybody would have dismissed New York City’s call for help from higher government interaction during 9/11, 2001.
This is my last word, I wouldn’t want to fall prey to internet trolling. I suggest you to start treating others the way you yourself would like to be treated, lest the next time you find yourself in need, somebody will have the compassion to help you, if you ever need it.
Bob
Dec 27, 2007
Yeah Ray, that was very uncaring. Tsk. Tsk. I don’t know why I wasn’t reprimanded for farting in their general direction but I am more than willing to let you take the heat. After all, you were there, trying to help with your own two hands so you should know how sensitive and delicate these people are. I think your opinion should carry far less weight than some do-gooder who has really thought about it.
I love sarcasm.
Ray
Dec 27, 2007
N:
The point about the obligation of higher levels of government is a good one but a bit misplaced. Certainly at the time of the actual flooding that might very well be true. But at this point the local or at least state government has the resources to deal with that portion of the situation that should be dealt with. They are just wasting it and much like the guy I commented about the entire local government also seems to be unwilling to help itself and seems to be insisting on everyone continually helping them.
Incidentally the statement about the upper levels of government assisting is in fact incorrect on one important level as it applies to New Orleans and Katrina. Many people complain about the federal government not coming to the immediate aid of the people there. That was not in fact the Federal Government’s job. If you remember all of the ads and advice about having a three day supply of food, water, medications, and etc. That is because as a general rule, and according to the master federal disaster plan, local communities and the state and local governments and the local people themselves are supposed to take care of normal reoccurring “disasters” on their own without federal aid. They are also supposed to take care of the survival of everyone for the first 72 hours in all disasters. Then the federal government is supposed to, after being officially asked by the local and state governments, come in and assist.
I agree that the federal government and fairly massive levels of assistance was needed by New York after 9/11. One has to wonder about building these buildings in that manner, and building such “wonderful targets”, but at the point of 9/12 that was water under the bridge a little like the number of people living many feet below sea level that close to the coast in the 9th ward. In both cases all the aid our nation could bring to the problem was appropriate. But I happen to disagree with the level of federal spending on “homeland security” in New York at this point. New York should on a city and state level fund their own operational expenses.
Now Certainly New York and for that mater Washington DC at major targets for another attack. We should be ready to respond to such an attack. But:
a. Any preparations we fund at a federal level for an attack on these cities should be available to anywhere in the nation which is attacked. These should like the national guard be a federal resource, and not something that the City would release and use elsewhere out of the “goodness of their heart.”
b. In general in many cases these preparations should in fact be taking place elsewhere. This is much like all of the equipment supplies and personnel needed to respond to flooding in the 9th ward should not be stores and staged at the bottom of the 9th ward.
c. The Federal Government should not be funding ongoing operations. If the local government can’t afford to do something with the proper safeguards and security then they should shut that down and not live off the federal dole. Now the planning for the use of items discussed in points a and b as the specifically apply to New York situations, and the drilling of these items is a federal issue. Normal day to day operations should not be.
By the way I have found myself in need. Yes there were those who came to my aid. “Thanks” to an accident where the other individual was uninsured I spent three years unable to work. The first year of this time period I was unable to even feed or dress myself (we won’t discuss the bathroom issues
). People came to my aid, but they also insisted that where I could I helped myself. They insisted that I make realistic and reachable plans to care for myself. Both the help I received, and also the “help” I did not, are why I now am back in the work force, and also why I am able to come here and educate you. 
Dave
Dec 27, 2007
Everyday we see more proof of the total collapse of our society. Nothing works anymore: government, or private action. Many people have abdicated their independence from government control in exchange for the government to provide all. The government is to overburdened and incompetent to help itself much less the poor souls who have given themselves to government in exchange for being cared for.
Maybe the great depression that is coming will in the final analysis be a cleansing action that will reorder our society and lead to a better society and government that recognizes its limits.
We must stop that..
Dec 28, 2007
If we don’t all work together today to find solutions to the growing problems we face there will be more death, disease and destruction. Stop this America as you may be the one to die.
2008
Dec 29, 2007
Look to a better future November 2008 is coming. Vote for Ron Paul!!!
Ray
Jan 02, 2008
I do find it interesting and a bit scary that most of the other candidates on both sides have on their web sites large amounts of information about them and what they claim they believe in. It is a bit troubling that Ron Paul’s site seems to be dedicated to the biographies of his supporters, and a statement that you can imagine what he would do as president.
If he can’t figure out yet what he would do as president yet then why in the world would one want to even consider him. By the time one is running for president one should have a pretty good idea what what is wanting to accomplish. If you don’t you are definitely not the man/woman for the job. If you know and just don’t want to admit it, which I suspect is the actual case, then there is less than zero reasons to support such a person.