Alabama town hit by tornadoes bans FEMA trailers

[JollyRoger]

CORDOVA, Ala. – James Ruston's house was knocked off its foundation by tornadoes that barreled through town last month and is still uninhabitable. He thought help had finally arrived when a truck pulled up to his property with a mobile home from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Then he got the call: Single-wide mobile homes, like the FEMA one, are illegal in the city of Cordova.

The city's refusal to let homeless residents occupy temporary housing provided by FEMA has sparked outrage in this central Alabama town of 2,000, with angry citizens filling a meeting last week and circulating petitions to remove the man many blame for the decision, Mayor Jack Scott.

Residents whose homes were destroyed assumed they would be able to live in one of the hundreds of long, skinny mobile homes that FEMA is providing as temporary housing for tornado victims. After all, the Cordova Police Department, a pharmacy, a bank and City Hall all have moved into similar trailers since the storm.

But the city enacted a law three years ago that bans the type of mobile homes provided by FEMA, called single-wide trailers. Older single-wide mobile homes were grandfathered in under the law and double-wide mobile homes are still allowed, Scott said, but new single-wides aren't allowed and a tornado isn't any reason to change the law, even temporarily.

"Let the people have a place to live," he said. To make matters worse, he said, the city is imposing a mean double standard when it refuses to let residents live in FEMA trailers but is using a nearly identical structure for police headquarters.

Scott said the city can use small trailers because it's for the common good.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110529/ap_on_re_us/us_fema_trailers_ban#mwpphu-container

Alabama was the last place that I thought trailers would be banned. Given the BMI of the typical Alabamian, though, I could see why double wides would be required. It's a public safety issue.

 

[Cutlass]

Saves them from cancer from formaldehyde poisoning in any case.

 

[cardgame]

Sweet homeless Alabama... nice.

I say he's not going to be mayor for very long

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Saves them from cancer from formaldehyde poisoning in any case.

Internet forum posters do NOT cause cancer. Chemicals found in the real world do.

 

[Cutlass]

Internet forum posters do NOT cause cancer. Chemicals found in the real world do.

http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/toxic_fema_trailers

 

[LucyDuke]

Scott said the city can use small trailers because it's for the common good.

Scott said, but new single-wides aren't allowed and a tornado isn't any reason to change the law, even temporarily

Yeah.

 

[Xanikk999]

This guy obviously doesn't want to be re-elected!

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/toxic_fema_trailers

I already know.

I was merely making a joke.

Guess it wasn't obvious enough.

 

[Cutlass]

I already know.

I was merely making a joke.

Guess it wasn't obvious enough.

Or it was so obviously a bad joke that it encouraged itself to be ignored.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Sweet homeless Alabama... nice.

Scott: Homeless people that can't live in trailers do not bother me.
Everyone else: Does your conscience bother you, tell the truth

 

[Mr. Dictator]

This guy obviously doesn't want to be re-elected!

I wonder what percentage of his electorate is homeless now.

These are moments where democracy really shines. The Sword of Damoclesy is falling.