Louisiana lawmakers expressed frustration to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s top onsite official today about the pace of providing flooding victims with temporary housing, especially mobile homes, with only one in place three weeks after the initial disaster, The Advertiser reports.
“One?” said state Rep. Clay Schexnayder when told of the number of mobile homes in place during a Louisiana House Homeland Security Committee meeting. “We have one trailer set up? Where I’m from I don’t call that satisfactory at all.”
FEMA’s Gerard Stolar said securing mobile home sites, on both commercial and individual property, is complicated.
“Everything has to line up in order to get these units in,” Stolar said, noting that parishes have to implement temporary ordinances to allow mobile homes to be put in place.
He said once temporary permitting is secured, installation takes five to seven days, from site preparation to delivery to final “blocking and strapping.”
Stolar said he hopes more displaced victims choose the “Shelter at Home” program, which provides up to $15,000 of work to make a home secure enough for victims to live in while more permanent repairs can take place.
More than 12,000 victims have registered for the Shelter at Home program. Stolar said more than 200 victims have been approved for mobile homes. Other options for displaced victims are hotels and rentals.
Meanwhile, committee members from northern Louisiana questioned whether FEMA’s work in the 36 parishes declared disasters in the March flood has been interrupted by the August flood in southern Louisiana in which 20 parishes have been declared disasters so far.
“We’ve made good progress but there’s still significant work, especially in the area of public assistance,” Stolar said.
