FEMA trailers have not been delivered to those in New York hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy, despite a substantial number of the mobile homes sitting at the readyin Maryland, WABC's Jim Hoffer reports.
New York City has actually chosen to forego emergency assistance in the form of FEMA trailers. This despite the fact that, more than a month after the superstorm devastated large swaths of the New York metropolitan area, thousands of families are still coping with the devastation, and could face substantial health risks living in damaged homes.
From WABC:
"We don't need FEMA trailers. We are focusing on getting people back in their homes," Mayor Bloomberg said.
Instead of trailers, Mayor Bloomberg is relying on his program called Rapid Repairs to get people back into their homes quickly.
"They replaced our boiler to give us heat back, we're doing pretty well with them," said Anne Tedesco, of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn.
But, five weeks since Rapid Repairs launched 1,200 homes have been fixed.
That leaves around 11,000 families still waiting, many with no heat or electric.
A representative for FEMA told WABC that installing trailers would risk "compound[ing] the problem," because difficult logistics could result in units being put "where they don't belong."
However, as winter descends on New York, many, including resident Frank Caputo, aren't buying it:
"You got a whole field right up the block called miller field where there's acres and acres of land," Caputo said.
FEMA trailers, notably, have been used in neighboring New Jersey.
Hoffer's entire report can be viewed above.