FEMA faces complaints of toxic trailers

WASHINGTON — About a year after moving into a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer, Teresa Coggins, a diabetic, lapsed into a coma.

Coggins, 48, blames the trailer, where she took up residence about six months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her house in Ocean Springs, Miss. Other trailer residents also have complained of getting sick, a problem traced to excessive levels of formaldehyde.

Those complaints mean that FEMA, which spent almost $1.8 billion buying about 120,000 trailers for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, can’t reuse, sell or even give the trailers away.

Coggins is bitter not just about her $100,000 hospital bill but also about what she described as FEMA’s lack of response when she asked that her trailer be tested.

"I could have died and nobody would know it was formaldehyde," she said.

Formaldehyde is a toxic chemical released by many construction materials, including plywood and spray-on insulating foam. Elevated levels can cause headaches, burning in the eyes and throat, nausea and difficulty breathing. It’s also a suspected carcinogen.

FEMA has asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to come up with a plan to test the trailers for formaldehyde. But more than

15 months after the Sierra Club found excessive levels of formaldehyde in trailers on the Gulf Coast, the federal government has yet to begin testing any of the thousands of trailers that still house victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The government has auctioned off more than 10,000 FEMA trailers on the private market through the General Services Administration. But FEMA Administrator David Paulison halted the sales, as well as donations of surplus trailers, after it was revealed at a congressional hearing last month that FEMA attorneys had urged that no trailers be tested to spare the agency from liability.

FEMA also has sold an undetermined number of trailers to hurricane victims who wanted to buy them. The agency did not respond to questions on how many trailers were purchased by Katrina and Rita victims, but it plans to buy them back from storm victims concerned about their safety.

FEMA has not decided whether it will offer to buy back trailers sold to others.

"No determination has been made at this point, but we will alert the press when we get to that point," FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said.

Tony Buzbee, a lawyer in Galveston, Texas, is representing almost 3,000 cases of people suing the government over FEMA trailers they bought or were given after Katrina.

If someone bought a trailer from FEMA at an auction, "they’re most likely buying trailers with issues," Buzbee said.

Between 9,000 and 14,000 trailers were available from a variety of manufacturers, Buzbee said, and some were rushed through the manufacturing process. Those had problems with supplies and quality control, he said.

Buzbee said his clients have experienced a range of health problems from the trailers, including cancer, miscarriages, respiratory problems and even death. Many are still living in the trailers, he said.

"The big issues is what has this done to folks in the long term in the next five to 10 years, we really don’t know," Buzbee said.

Eric Hatfield, owner of Hatfield Development Co. in Shreveport, La., spent about $700,000 buying 247 trailers through a GSA auction. He sold 235 of them last month and wishes he could buy more.

"It was a good business venture," Hatfield said.

Hatfield dismissed formaldehyde concerns as the unfounded complaints of "disgruntled people."

But others who have bought FEMA trailers are more cautious.

Jim Durham of Durham Auctions in Brooklyn, Miss., purchased 44 trailers for about $466,000 through a GSA auction. He wanted to use them as rental units in a trailer park in Petal. But Durham said concerns about formaldehyde forced him to put those plans on hold.

"I’m scared of them," Durham said. "The last thing we want to do is put tenants in a piece of property and then get sued."

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has demanded GSA buy back all the FEMA trailers it has sold. The agency kept 10 percent of the sale price of the trailers for its efforts to auction them off.

"Any trailer contaminated to that extent is not fit for human occupation — not for the citizens of the Gulf Coast and not for anyone." Cummings said. "GSA, FEMA and the Congress must do all that we can to immediately eliminate this danger to the public’s health."