New Orleans Mayor Rips Plan to Empty FEMA Trailers

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A plan to move people living in trailers to apartments and hotels because of concerns about formaldehyde fumes will not work and will lead to a "second great displacement" of New Orleans residents, the city's mayor said.

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[q
url="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFPPo5u2Y22PODFsJaPTpdzUd0sgD8V2M6900"]There
simply isn't enough other housing available in the hurricane-distressed
region, Mayor Ray Nagin said in a letter to President Bush released
Tuesday.
"Because of the scope of damage to New Orleans' housing
stock, much of which is still not recovered, there is insufficient
housing here to place all New Orleans citizens needing to be relocated
from trailers," Nagin wrote.
R. David Paulison, the administrator
for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said earlier this month
that the agency hopes to get everyone out and into hotels, motels,
apartments and other temporary housing by the summer, when the heat and
stuffy air could worsen dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes found in
the trailers.
James McIntyre, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, said Wednesday that the mayor's letter was addressed
to the president and that his agency had not received an official copy.
He said FEMA would work with Nagin's office to address his concerns
"within our legal authorities."
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention this month said that formaldehyde fumes from 519 trailers
and mobile homes tested in Mississippi and Louisiana were, on average,
about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.[/q]rw