Outrage: FEMA Trailers Pose Health Risks

Shaun Heasley

Nearly four months after Hurricane Katrina leveled their home, Jesse John Fineran and his wife, Candy (left), were relieved to move from a tent pitched inside their damaged home in Waveland, Miss., to a FEMA trailer. But within a week, Candy, 60, was experiencing health problems, including  watery eyes and constant asthma flare-ups. Jesse John, 63, soon had sinus congestion and trouble breathing.

They weren’t alone. After more than two years of complaints from FEMA trailer residents, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that many of FEMA’s nearly 36,000 manufactured homes nationwide have high levels of formaldehyde, a preservative that can pose health risks from high-level or prolonged exposure to it.

FEMA officials now say they will relocate the residents to other housing.

As for the Finerans, Candy avoids the trailer by renting a garage apartment in Louisiana. Her husband remains in Mississippi to renovate their new home.

“We were told [the trailer] was safe,” says Jesse John. “But I was better off pitching a tent.