HURRICANE KATRINA DISCUSSION

[NYBob]

FEMA tricks out new trailers for next disaster
3 minutes ago
By EILEEN SULLIVAN
Associated Press Writer

(AP:EMMITSBURG, Md.) They're clean, shutterless and decorated with a rainbow of beige hues. They're mobile homes built for future disaster victims and, so far, have safe levels of formaldehyde.

The six newly designed mobile homes were rolled out Thursday by federal officials to replace the much-criticized travel trailers used in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many people said living in the earlier models made them sick.

The mobile homes _ including one travel trailer _ were built as part of a program to develop new disaster housing solutions for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

After Katrina, 1 million people lost their homes in Louisiana and Mississippi. FEMA sent thousands of mobile homes into the region only to learn later of high levels of formaldehyde, a chemical used in the glue for building materials that can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer.

Residents of FEMA-issued trailers reported frequent headaches, nosebleeds and other ailments.

The new models _ which range in price from $45,000 to $75,000 _ were toured by federal officials in Emmitsburg, Md. The trailers have been tested and meet FEMA standards for safe formaldehyde levels.

Students at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg will live in the units and test them for the next six to 12 months, said Jack Schuback, the FEMA official who is overseeing the project.

One thing they will watch is whether formaldehyde levels increase over time. Schuback said cooking and smoking can sometimes increase the level of formaldehyde in the air.

There is no industry standard for the amount of formaldehyde allowed in travel trailers. The government sets standards for indoor air quality for materials used to build mobile homes, but not for travel trailers.

Government tests in 2007 found an average of 77 parts formaldehyde per billion parts of air in FEMA trailers issued after the 2005 hurricanes. FEMA's standard for the new trailers is 16 parts formaldehyde or less per billion parts of air.

Getting these units built without using much formaldehyde was one of the challenges, Schuback said.

One of the prototypes _ the D&D Hybrid Park Model _ is two bedrooms, one bathroom with walls insulated with 100 percent sheep wool. The wool absorbs the formaldehyde, said D&D chief executive officer Bill Hanblin.

The travel trailer prototype _ made by Texas-based Frontier RV _ is the first to have a device that circulates fresh outside air into the trailer, said Ryan Buras, a housing program specialist at FEMA. This one-bedroom trailer is also handicap-accessible with a bathroom three times larger than the typical travel trailer bathroom.

The other four units are made by Arkel International LLC of Baton Rouge, La., Heston Group of New Orleans, Lexington Homes Inc., of Lexington, Miss., and TL Industries of Elkhart, Ind.

If a major hurricane or flood left people homeless _ as happened after Katrina _ FEMA could order units similar to those being tested, Schuback said.

The government's disaster housing strategy _ which was adopted during the Bush administration _ says disaster victims can be housed in trailers only as a last resort, even though Bush officials promised to never use them again. The strategy says that if mobile homes are used, they must meet FEMA's new standard and disaster victims can use them no longer than six months.

By FEMA's count, 2,570 trailers and mobile homes are still being used in Louisiana and 1,500 in Mississippi to house victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

___

Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed to this report from New Orleans.

The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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La. signs $30 million Road Home contract -
9 minutes ago

(AP:BATON ROUGE, La.) Louisiana will pay up to $30 million
to the new contractor running the Road Home program
that doles out grants to homeowners with damage
from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, under a two-year
contract released Thursday by the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

The state announced in February that Hammerman and Gainer Inc.,
based in Lutcher, will manage the program, taking over
from heavily criticized ICF International Inc.

Hammerman and Gainer, one of ICF's largest subcontractors
working on the Road Home, took control of the program
April 20, the state recovery authority said in a statement.

The contract with the company includes 19 performance standards,
and the company faces fines for errors in files and for
not meeting certain benchmarks.
For example, Hammerman and Gainer must have a final error
rate of less than 5 percent or face a $10,000 fine for
each percentage point above that, according to the contract.

The Road Home has handed out $7.9 billion in grants to
more than 124,000 homeowners, from federal aid given
to Louisiana after Katrina and Rita struck in 2005.

ICF, the Fairfax, Va.-based company hired by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration,
has been paid more than $867 million for its work so far,
but critics said homeowners were treated poorly and often
given less money than they should have received.

Rather than renew a contract with ICF, Gov. Bobby Jindal's
administration broke up the components of the Road Home
and solicited bids for new companies. Contractors other
than Hammerman and Gainer will collect and store Road Home
data and run a separate Road Home program to help
repair small rental property.

Virginia-based CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc.
will receive up to $40 million for providing Road Home data
storage and technology services for other hurricane recovery programs.
ACS State & Local Solutions Inc., based in Dallas, will
be paid up to $37.5 million to run the slow-moving program
to help small landlords rebuild rental property.
--

High stakes in Hurricane Katrina flooding trial -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/ap_on_re_us/katrina_flood_lawsuit

Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517035,00.html
--

Catastrophic’ Sea-Level Rise Possible, Reef Reveals
Enviromental Headlines;
Climate Change(Bloomberg) --

Fossilized coral reefs formed the last time the Earth
was warmer than today show sea levels could rise rapidly
by the end of the century if global warming triggers
a collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

A “catastrophic” rise in the ocean of 4 meters to 6 meters
(13 feet to 19.6 feet) is possible, said Paul Blanchon,
a scientist at the National University of Marine Sciences
in Cancun, Mexico, whose team studied the fossilized reefs.

The death and re-emergence on higher elevation of reefs
121,000 years ago could only result from a rapid increase
in ocean levels caused by the breakdown of ice sheets,
he said.

Ice caps like those that cover the Antarctic and Greenland
are thought to be melting at a rate that could raise sea
levels by about 12 meters over the next millennium,
Blanchon said.

His report, to be published in the April 16 issue of Nature,
says global warming caused by burning fossil fuels could
shorten that time frame to several hundred years.

“What we’re saying is ice sheets may not just melt due
to global warming,” Blanchon said.
“That’s the real problem that we face, can these ice
sheets basically slide into the ocean?”

Bloomberg
Posted on Thursday, April 16 @ 06:05:56 PDT by Leanan
--

I have been assured, by everyone from Ph.D.s to poets, that HAARP is:
1. An ionospheric heater
2. A research tool
3. A military test bed
4. A tax-subsidized boondoggle
5. A directed-energy weapon
6. A communication system for submarines
7. A source of field-aligned ionospheric VHF reflectors
8. A way to improve satellite links
9. A planetary x-ray machine
10. A plot to depopulate the Third World
11. A means of creating power blackouts at will
12. Electronic warfare
13. Tesla's wireless power transmission
14. Tesla's secret death ray
15. Searching for space aliens
16. Killing space aliens
17. Killing off the militias
18. Keeping them awake at night (through RF head rectification)
19. Enforcing the New World Order
20. Creating nuclear-scale explosions
21. Weather modification
22. CIA mind control
23. Brain wave modification
24. The end of HF radio
25. The end of wildlife in Alaska
26. The end of atmospheric ozone
27. The end of the human race
28. The end of Earth itself.
Now, this is pretty good for one transmitter.
I think the last experimental radio that attracted
this kind of attention was built by Marconi.
What's Up With HAARP?

you could be right...
It's not only greenhouse gas emissions: Washington's new world order weapons
have the ability to trigger climate change.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/haarp.html

great reading here;
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/haarpFactSheet.html

re;
US Patent for the HAARP Project -

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/77884

You are not going to believe what is being covered by National Geographic -

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/81607

Clearly, they are subconsciously preparing us for alien invasion:

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/haarp_index.htm

http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/haarpFactSheet.html

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=haarp