Cape Karen
This situation with the eleven thousand, fully furnished mobile homes sitting idle in AR is really bugging me! The utter insanity of the situation is what's holding my interest.
Think about it: here we have FEMA, claiming that they are out of money, and that they cannot afford to continue paying for emergency motel rooms, or to keep maintaining the lovely Tent City in MS. Therefore, this week and in MS before March 15th, all the Katrina homeless are being shoved out into the streets; thousands of devastated American families, most with no money and nowhere to go, all stranded because FEMA claims they are too broke to help them any longer.
BUT - at the same time, FEMA is now going to spend another nine million dollars to put gravel under the "homes for the homeless," so they won't sink into the mud and buckle the walls. Gee ~ it seems that FEMA has "found" nine million dollars lying around somewhere ~ to buy gravel ~ but, they said they had no money to keep people housed in motel rooms and tents? Hmmmmm?
Okay. That stinks!
But, think about this: the rainy season is coming to AR, and those homes are not hooked up. They are not heated or air conditioned, and they have no running water. They are each just $35,000.00 shells, filled with appliances and furniture, sitting on nine million dollar gravel piles. (Do the math . . . it's just mind boggling!)
But, that's not the worst of it.
I'll bet you a dollar (all I can afford) that in the next 2-3 months we will hear another news report that the mobile homes sitting in AR have begun to fill with mold and mildew. On the nightly news, they will show us all the new furniture sitting inside the homes ~ it will be covered with ugly green fuzz, and the sturdy, unbuckled walls will be crawling with nasty black mold. FEMA will then announce that it will cost another fifteen million (that they will 'find' somewhere) to destroy all the ruined homes, and to haul the "debris" away to a landfill. (Talk about throwing money away!)
By the time this happens - and if something isn't done soon, it will happen - the entire homes-for-the-homeless project will have cost US taxpayers $364 million . . . and not one penny of that money will have helped any of the Katrina families to move into a home.
Thanks FEMA - Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency - you do us proud! We all look forward to seeing your plans for helping the American people when the next disaster strikes.
Sleep tight, Michael Chertoff . . . sleep tight.