Last of FEMA trvel trailers leaving Texas before next Hurricane season

The last handful of families in Jasper County who are still living in FEMA-owned travel trailers will be moved to other housing by June 1, according to Don Jacks, lead public information officer for the FEMA Texas transitional recovery office.

The goal, according to FEMA, is "to have all families in safer, more secure housing by June 1, the start of hurricane season." Jasper County was down to only five trailers; in an eight county area, only 29 remained.

Where do old FEMA trailers go? About 4,000 sit in the Jasper marshaling yard near the airport, and there are other yards with thousands more.

"After Hurricane Rita hit Southeast Texas in Sept. 2005, FEMA moved more than 4,600 travel trailers to this area to supplement a limited number of available housing units," according to Jacks.

In all, FEMA bought around 140,000 travel trailers for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and now the vast majority of them sit, useless, in marshaling yards like the one in Jasper.

FEMA executives have said they will never again use these travel trailers to house disaster victims, nor does the agency have any other plans for them at this time.

Until last July, FEMA was allowing the travel trailers to be sold at government surplus auctions, and the Jasper yard was doing brisk business.

Individuals still living in the trailers were given the opportunity to purchase their unit for $300, but that option was quickly withdrawn when complaints of respiratory illnesses from formaldehyde exposure surfaced.

When the levels of formaldehyde exposure became a national issue, Congress halted sales, and eventually the CDC tested the units and found levels many times higher than typical household exposure, although there is no accepted standard for residential levels of this common chemical.

Costs to maintain marshaling yards include security guards around the clock, a FEMAproperty manager and staff, and maintenance.

U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady said that the fate of the trailers is tied up in a "preservation of evidence" clause in a pending class action lawsuit for people claiming to have been harmed by formaldehyde exposure.

Such suits can take years to resolve.