FEMA Official Criticizes Trailer Plan for Evacuees

Lump-Sum Payments to Victims Urged

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 9, 2005; Page A12

The federal government's second-ranking disaster official in Louisiana yesterday criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency's program to house Hurricane Katrina evacuees in trailers, calling the effort wasteful and counter to the long-term interest of more than 100,000 displaced families.

Instead of spending as much as $140,000 for each trailer and site for a family to use for 18 months, the government should hand out in a lump sum the $26,200 that Congress has approved for storm victims, Scott Wells, a FEMA official and the federal coordinating officer for Louisiana, told senators.