The federal government is moving manufactured housing (mobile
homes) into areas in
hardest by Superstorm Sandy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said
Thursday.
Several hundred mobile homes have started moving to disaster
zones.
Forty prefabricated homes were en route from a staging area
in
officials said. State officials in
and
will decide where the houses will be placed, federal officials said.
Since the storm hit last week, more than 317,000 people have
registered with FEMA for financial help and the agency has approved more than
$300 million in emergency aid. In
FEMA has determined that more than 101,000 people are eligible for temporary
housing at hotels or motels in the region but it’s unclear exactly how many
people are taking advantage of that option.
More than 56,000 people have also been ruled eligible for
FEMA’s individual and households program, which provides money for renting a
new place or housing repairs.
Fugate said some people who have been forced out of their
homes have sought shelter at hotels as far away as
FEMA was widely criticized for using trailers after
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated
and parts of the
of those trailers were later found to contain toxic levels of formaldehyde.
A class-action settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit
over the trailers earlier this year called for around two dozen companies that
manufactured trailers distributed in that emergency to pay a total of $37.5
million to resolve claims from residents housed in the trailers.
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| Trailers used by FEMA during Katrina |
FEMA said the mobile homes being sent to
York
have been approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The
mobile homes being used for this storm are not the same ones used after Katrina
and Rita.
