MIAMI (AP) — Tomorrow's disaster victims may watch their homes and communities be rebuilt from the cool comfort of a front porch.
The porches are a feature of prefabricated cottages designed for Hurricane Katrina's victims as an alternative to travel trailers issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As the Katrina recovery stretches into its third year, the trailers became reviled for being too cramped, demoralizing and unhealthy. The cottages, meanwhile, proved so popular that a major home improvement retailer plans to sell them to the general public.
Now the cottages are among the alternatives being considered for emergency housing after natural disasters. Since 2006, FEMA has been compiling an inventory of prefabricated structures that can withstand hurricane-force winds and be the building blocks for a recovering neighborhood.
“Our challenge in providing disaster housing is we're required to put something out there that's good, fast and cheap, and by cheap we mean cost-effective,” Jack Schuback, director of the Joint Housing Solutions Group, which is conducting the FEMA evaluations. “The real challenge is, it's extraordinarily difficult to achieve all three of those things at the same time.”
Federal and state emergency management officials stress that their first choice is to house displaced residents in rental properties close to their communities. If those units aren't available or run out, that's when trailers or mobile homes have been used.
FEMA has not decided which housing alternative it will try in the wake of the next disaster. Since hurricane season began June 1, trailers like those used after hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 have been available in Florida, said Doug Wright, the recovery chief for the state's Division of Emergency Management.
More than 17,000 Florida families lived in FEMA trailers after the 2004 storms, but none reported the problems with formaldehyde discovered in the trailers issued after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, according to FEMA.
Testing showed those trailers had formaldehyde levels that were about five times greater than most modern homes. Complaints about health problems linked to formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in building materials, started soon after people moved in.
“We don't want to use them, but who knows what might have to be done if it's catastrophic,” Wright said. “It would be up to FEMA if they allow the use of these trailers in a worst-case scenario.”
FEMA has set new air quality standards, including formaldehyde emissions comparable to that of conventional housing, for the temporary housing units it buys for disaster victims.
Federal officials could not specify which home models are being evaluated, due to government policy, but they said the designs they're considering include rudimentary shelters with no plumbing, collapsible buildings, the “Katrina cottages” already in use in the Gulf Coast and other modular units that range from pods to dormitory-style structures.
“We probably saw more variations on shipping containers than anything else,” said Gerald Jones, a member of a National Institute of Building Sciences team that paired with federal officials to evaluate some units. “Some of those were kind of crude. Then again, your measure is, is this better than a tent on bare ground?”
Jones, a retired Kansas City, Mo., building official, liked how the “Katrina cottages” could be expanded with additions if residents wanted the units to become permanent homes. But he added that the model required carpenters to put it together.
The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, a professional outreach program of Mississippi State University’s school of architecture, is helping low-income families rebuild homes lost to Katrina. Most considered moving from a FEMA travel trailer to a cottage an upgrade, but many questioned why the government spent money on a second phase of temporary housing, rather than permanent repairs to their homes, said David Perkes, the school's founding director.
“People thought it would extend the emergency housing period,” he said.
Through a FEMA grant, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency is trying out cottages and two other prefabricated models in its three coastal counties. More than 2,400 of the units currently house Katrina victims.
MEMA Director Mike Womack praised the cottages for being safe, with twice the tie-downs of conventional mobile homes, and for maintaining traditional Gulf Coast architecture with front porches and sloped roofs.
“You never know if a temporary unit has the possibility of being semi-permanent,” Womack said. “We wanted something that would fit in for several years.”
Photo: FEMA cottage
ON THE NET
Federal Emergency Management Agency: www.fema.gov
Mississippi Alternative Housing Program: www.mscottage.org
Gulf Coast Community Design Studio: www.gccds.org
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