Remember those trailers used for "temporary" housing in the aftermath of Katrina -- the trailers that were hot little traps full of formaldehyde finally declared unsafe housing?
Well, they're back. They're back and southern Louisiana and families will be living in them.
The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again.
Some of the trailers, though, are getting a second life amid the latest disaster here — as living quarters for workers involved with the cleanup of the oil spill. They have been showing up in mobile-home parks, open fields and local boatyards as thousands of cleanup workers have scrambled to find housing.
Ron Mason, owner of a disaster contracting firm, Alpha 1, said that in the past two weeks he had sold more than 20 of the trailers to cleanup workers and the companies that employ them in Venice and Grand Isle, La.
Even though federal regulators have said the trailers are not to be used for housing because of formaldehyde’s health risks, Mr. Mason said some of these workers had bought them so they could be together with their wives and children after work. ...NYT
No, they weren't outlawed, destroyed. FEMA sold them. Private dealers bought them with the comment, "The price was right." Oh, and "Bottom line, I’m providing a service."
