In case you have been following this story, you may find this article interesting/concerning/scary.
It makes me wonder about my Fleetwood popup. Should I be concerned? I once looked into the issue. There is some kind of item you can buy to neutralize the fermaldahyde.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/02/national/main5866272.shtml
Settlements on things like this are often not based on any real damage, but on what are the risks/odds/costs of winning vs loosing.
Cases like this, when they go to jury, are not decied on the basis of reasonable doubt, but on a preponderance of the evidence. Oftentimes, the jury does not have to be unanimous, so as a plaintiff, all I need to do is convince 10 out of 12 people that you probably (probably meaning more than 50%) are responsible.
For the defendant, the risk of loosing, even if innocent, can be quite high. When hordes of people come marching through the court crying about the ailaments they've had since Katrina, some members of the jury end up inclined to help them even if the defendant is not to blame.
All they had to do was find traces of formaldehyde (sp) in one trailer, and they had a case, whether or not the rest were contaminated.
I am not even going to think of this when using my Bayside.
Austin
That like when you buy a new car like the smell but it bad for you to. with a pop up it should be ok because when open it airing out.
I have to tell you, I have a big problem with this whole thing. I live in Louisiana and rode out Katrina when she blew through. No I did not lose my home, but we volunteered and served those that did. We worked a shelter near my home about an hour from New Olreans that housed people from the heaviest flooded area in New Olreans. It was chaos at first just trying to get people settled in and then in the following days many of those living in the shelter became very difficult to deal with. We served them three meals a day plus snacks and you wouldn't believe the complaints we recieved when they didn't like the food. Some folks decided to protest the food by throwing it on the floors and slinging it on the walls.
Another facility/shelter 30 minutes away which housed about twice the number of people we did had over $500,000 in damage to the facility while housing folks for less than a month.
There were several FEMA trailer parks built in our area where several hundreds of these FEMA trailers were moved in to move people out of the shelters and into the trailer parks. With all of the money the Feds were dumping into this area, anyone that wanted a job could have one. They were paying $25.00 an hour for laborers to help clean up in New Orleans. Agents would first go to the shelters and the FEMA trailer parks to offer the jobs to those people first. They were actually offering to pay and transport people back and forth to New Orleans to go and clean up their own neighborhoods. They couldn't recruit enough people from the shelters and the FEMA trailer Parks out of thousands of people to fill up 1 bus going to New Orleans.
People stayed in these trailers for almost two years while recieving monthly payments, three meals a day and supplies as well as other services. All the while they were complaining that they were not being provided more permanent housing.
And now they are sueing, those that provided FREE housing for them when they could have taken one of the $52,000 a year jobs they were offered and paid for their own place. I talked to an agent that offered jobs to three family members all staying in the same trailer. All three were very able bodied individuals and he said, "would you believe they would have had a household income of over $150,000 with an opportunity to move into a house of their own and they turned it down. They flat did not want to work."
Unbelievable.
Quote from: CajunCamper;213166Unbelievable.
WOW... you said it CajunCamper, unbelievable.
And we want people to be just as dependent on the gov't for health care?
Austin
I went to the gulf coast with our rescue team after Katrina.
I know what it was like for those in Mississippi and Louisiana the first few days after the devastation.
We removed remains from piles of lumber that were houses.
We slept on the ground at night.
We cut trees out of roadways and handed out water,food and diapers.
I don't know what you lived through but I saw things that I hope to never see again.
The response from FEMA left a lot to be desired.
I hope FEMA is better now.
I hope the people we helped are OK.
We spent 10 days working across two states.
Like I said I don't know what you saw or where you were at.
I pray it does not happen again in my life time because I can't go back and see that again.
The state and local governments failed the local people.
Quote from: kensue49;213206I went to the gulf coast with our rescue team after Katrina.
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Quote from: kensue49;213206I know what it was like for those in Mississippi and Louisiana the first few days after the devastation.
We removed remains from piles of lumber that were houses.
We slept on the ground at night.
We cut trees out of roadways and handed out water,food and diapers.
I don't know what you lived through but I saw things that I hope to never see again.
The response from FEMA left a lot to be desired.
I hope FEMA is better now.
I hope the people we helped are OK.
We spent 10 days working across two states.
Like I said I don't know what you saw or where you were at.
I pray it does not happen again in my life time because I can't go back and see that again.
kensue49.....please remember that this is a board and reading your thread I fill you may have seen more than most.I dont believe the people responding here are trying to be mean! They are just making a point. All sides of this issue will be harsh to the other party and in the long run the GVT may have failed, But they gave homes and food, if they didnt want to help themselve's ( then you make your own bed)
A good friend in Gulfport told me that a lot of people living in FEMA trailers trashed the insides so badly that they could only be sold for junk. Others were completely stripped by the occupants of all appliances, water heaters and anything that could be sold when they moved out....and nobody even said "thank you TAXPAYERS"....
I have seen the[COLOR="Red"] YOU OWE ME[/COLOR] people all over this country. We don't work or don't want to :eyecrazy:work, I'am a citizen and all you working people owe me.......... Pay my medical and feed me :-() and give me spending money every month and don't bother me..............
Quote from: azbirddog;213271I have seen the[COLOR="Red"] YOU OWE ME[/COLOR] people all over this country. We don't work or don't want to :eyecrazy:work, I'am a citizen and all you working people owe me.......... Pay my medical and feed me :-() and give me spending money every month and don't bother me..............
All the while, they have no idea that they are as dependent on the government as slaves (and possibly more than slaves).
At least some of us who work recognize our own slavery.
Austin
Hummm, lets see, I hired a roofer years ago who lied on their insurance app and I got stuck rebuilding my whole house on my own with very little help from my insurance company ( which by the way dropped me afterwards since I had a claim that wasn't even my fault ). In all this time I didn't ask for a dime from the government. I don't want to hear anything about the "poor people that the government let down". Bunch of rubbish. These people saw it coming and didn't leave. These people lived in a high risk area and didn't have a backup plan. Sorry, I know there were lives lost and much damage. I recognize all the people that helped. However, I rebuild my house almost all on my own while working my full time job and was back in my house in under 6 months. My pitty stopped a long time ago for "these poor people". I agree with austin boston. These people like being dependent and I would add only want to critique and not be responsible. Call the wambulance.
Quote from: dademt;213394These people lived in a high risk area and didn't have a backup plan.
Almost everyone lives in a high risk area. It's just a question of what the risks are. Very few people have a backup plan.
Disastars happen, and they can happen to anyone, anywhere. We should all ask ourselves, "What's the plan in case of [insert your likely disasters here]?"
QuoteCall the wambulance.
This term has just been added to my vocabulary. :D Thanks.
Austin
Quote from: AustinBoston;213469Almost everyone lives in a high risk area. It's just a question of what the risks are. Very few people have a backup plan.
Disastars happen, and they can happen to anyone, anywhere. We should all ask ourselves, "What's the plan in case of [insert your likely disasters here]?"
This term has just been added to my vocabulary. :D Thanks.
Austin
We live in the foot hills of the smokey mountains so bad flooding is not a worry. The mountains tend to steer hurricanes away from us and we only get their squalls and rain. Earthquake? maybe, we get some very small tremors now and then, mostly unnoticed. Tsunamis? they would have to be awfully high to reach our elevation.. Ice storms? yup, every few years, last one left us without power for a week but we were prepared. Moved into the den where the fire place has a natural gas log which kept us warm and we cooked meals in the popup we had back then. My collection of Coleman lanterns and oil lamps supplied plenty of llight. A lot of people had to leave because their homes were all electric. We keep a good supply of dry foods like beans, rice, grits, corn meal, flour, noodles,etc. These will keep for very long periods and we also have a supply of canned goods which we use and replace with new. Neighbor has a well with a hand operated pitcher pump so drinking water is not a problem but we have some containers of it anyway. Also have full tanks of propane, two thirtys and two twenties plus the two tanks on the trailer.
My biggest fear is the loss of electrical power for a long period which could be caused by a natural disaster or terrorists. Our society is totally dependant on electricity for just about everything. What can you do without electrical power? And what will happen to our food supply chain after a few days with out power? Really scary...
One thing for certain, people who have camping experience will have a much better chance of survival than those without, regardless of the type of disaster...Are you prepared??....
Sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I had to comment...
I also am from New Orleans. I'm also an insurance agent just west of the city. I dealt with all of my own clients problems (about 3000 houses, mostly with minor damage- well, under 20K anyway. Almost every one needed new fencing and roofs at least.) plus our office was on the drive back into the city. We had at least another 1000 people come in (not an exaggeration) to file claims. Every one had a story. Some were horrific... one couple comes to mind from Chalmette that ended up escaping the flooding in a jon boat and spending 3 days with no food or water and being rescued by a tug boat on the river. Their home had survived the storm fine, but the levee broke later and they literally had minutes to grab what they could and escape.
Personally, my home had 4' of water in it. We evacuated and retured to the area 2 weeks later. I had to go back to work and start handling claims. I worked for more than a week before I could even get to my home to see the damage. By not sleeping for the next 4 months and calling in every favor I was owed, I was able to move back in by January 06.
There were many FEMA trailers near us. I was in many of them. As we moved back in so quickly they weren't available in time for me to get one. I could smell the formaldhyde in several I visited. There was a problem with the vinyl is what I've heard. It was real... but not life threatening.
Is a class action lawsuit going to solve anything now? No. It'll make a few attorneys richer. That's all. Those people should have been happy to be able to get a trailer. It would have made my life easier. I was staying 2 hours from my home and would have been able to cut my commute to work on it.
FEMA's response was slow and disorganized. So was many of the insurance companies responses. Even working there it took me 6 weeks to get someone out to asses my damage (I had already started repairs). Why? No one ever anticipated damage on that scale. Usually when there is a catastrophe its limited to one small area. The adjusters set up a base of operations in a nearby town that wasn't impacted. That way they have power, phones, and internet. In Katrina's case that would have been hours away! Damage was hundreds of miles wide and inland to central MS. They should have been better equipped and prepared for something like this.
As far as why people didn't evacuate? No one wants to leave their home. They are afraid of looting (it happens every storm- a looter was killed near our property by the national guard during Hurr Betsy so this isn't anything new). Weather prediction is imprecise. The Saturday night before Katrina we were at a birthday party and debating evacuating. It hit Sunday night...
Some will never evacuate and expect the government to take care of them. These people have been given handouts for so long they can't do anything but. This is a problem the liberal party has created.... I'm not defending them, but I understand the problem...
Thanks...