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Jun 3, 2009 8:54 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Foreclosed Homes FEMA's Storm Solution?
WASHINGTON (CBS4 I-TEAM) ―
Hurricane season is here, and as the
CBS4 I-Team first told you two years ago, there are not enough FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trailers for victims in case of a major storm.
Even after two years of charges and countercharges by Congressional leaders over the issue, the situation has remained the same. There aren't enough temporary homes in case of a major storm in FEMA's inventory.
CBS4 I-Team investigator Stephen Stock first broke the story of troubles within FEMA's long-term, temporary housing inventory. Wednesday, during a six-day drill being conducted by FEMA officials in Florida, planners tried out a new and controversial plan that would help solve that long-term, temporary housing shortage problem.
As part of a big role playing exercise, FEMA disaster planners floated the idea of putting storm victims in vacant, foreclosed homes in an area after a major hurricane strikes. One of the idea's goals would be to keep Florida cities which are hit by a major storm from turning into ghost towns similar to what happened to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Although this is JUST part of a drill, part of an exercise that FEMA is currently running in Florida, some past critics of the emergency management agency said it was just the kind of idea FEMA needs to consider.
Tent cities as far as the eye could see were a common site around Homestead and Florida City after Hurricane Andrew hit. The Congressional critics of FEMA have been fighting to prevent a repeat for more than two years. Now Congressional critics are worried that storm victims, after a major hurricane like an Andrew or a Katrina, could be living these tent cities for months or even years.
"If a category four or five hurricane hits a major population center, it's 'Katy, bar the door,'" said US Senator Bill Nelson, of Orlando. "Not only do you have economic devastation. You have tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of people that are without a place to live."
But now, because of this plan, storm victims could end up in foreclosed homes if a drill becomes reality.
During part of a large statewide drill for training for future hurricanes Wednesday, FEMA officials, in some of the most out-of-the-box thinking from Washington in years, floated the idea of putting hurricane evacuees in foreclosed homes in the event of a devastating storm.
"This is a very innovative approach," US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said. "I commend FEMA for looking at innovative ways to deal with the issue of not having enough homes; not enough temporary housing after a big storm comes."
But Florida's Senior US Senator warned there could be serious problems with the idea. "I don't think that's a plan for alternate housing for hurricane victims," Senator Bill Nelson said. "This plan could be fraught with a lot of peril."
The idea of putting storm victims into foreclosed homes raises many questions, such as maintaining property, mowing the grass, convincing banks which own the mortgage to allow it, convincing neighbors worried about property values as well as figuring out how to get storm victims to leave once they move in.
But the idea is also drawing praise from both sides of the political aisle for its creativity. "This is the kind of innovative thing that FEMA needs to be doing," Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart said.
"I give FEMA an "A" for creativity," said Democratic Senator Nelson.
Again, this is just a drill and FEMA officials insisted in a late e-mail sent Wednesday evening just before 6:00pm to Senator Nelson's office that this idea was not under serious consideration. According to the e-mail "There's no FEMA policy to put disaster victims in foreclosed homes."
The e-mail explained that this idea was part of a "big role-playing exercise going on in Florida now." And "the idea to use foreclosed homes to house disaster victims was put on the table as a 'what if' (if) a giant hurricane hit Florida."
The e-mail to Senator Nelson said this idea of using foreclosed homes "has been done in the past in extreme circumstances before." But "FEMA is not exploring it as a policy option."
Even so, Representative Diaz-Balart and Senator Nelson say perhaps the idea should get serious discussion because it shows "out-of-the-box" thinking and a creative approach to solving a serious housing shortage problem.
Meantime, FEMA still does not have a concrete and comprehensive written-out plan to provide massive, long-term, temporary housing in the event of a large hurricane anywhere in the United States.
There simply aren't enough mobile homes, trailers or safe mobile units available in staging areas around the country right now. Both Senator Nelson and Representative Diaz-Balart, along with other critics, say they hope that changes soon.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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