Trailers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to act for at least a year on warnings that trailers housing refugees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde, according to a House subcommittee report released Monday. Instead, the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry demoted the scientist who questioned its initial assessment that the trailers were safe as long as residents opened a window or another vent, the report said.

A year and a half after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is auctioning off -- at fire-sale prices -- thousands of trailers used by storm victims, raising fears among mobile home dealers that the government will flood the market and depress prices. Mobile home dealers are finding that some potential customers would rather wait to make a deal on a used FEMA trailer than spend $25,000 to $40,000 for a new one.

A day after hearing testimony about health problems from Hurricane Katrina victims who had lived in government-supplied trailers, members of Congress on Friday questioned why a federal agency was auctioning many of those trailers to dealers and individuals across the country. "I understand the need to not lose money, but if the trailers are going to make people sick, maybe we should consider cutting our losses," said Rep. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.).

Days after the Federal Emergency Management Agency's chief spokesman said concerns about formaldehyde would not stop it from selling or donating surplus disaster trailers, the agency said Tuesday that it is reviewing the policy. FEMA headquarters issued an advisory on Tuesday that said the agency was "reviewing a number of policies related to travel trailers, including the status of sales and donations." FEMA provided 120,000 travel trailers to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Spencer morrison was a stickler for safety. The middle-school teacher had precious cargo to protect -- his 4-year-old triplets, Ethan, Garret and Alaina. Only the best minivan and top-of-the-line car seats would do. None of that mattered when a trailer -- a 3-ton wood-chipper on wheels -- broke loose from a truck and careened into oncoming traffic like an unguided missile on April 13, 2006. It smashed into the minivan and "just blew the vehicle apart," the local police chief, T.

When a New York designer came up with a plan for a tiny cottage that could offer permanent shelter for Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi officials pressed hard for federal funding. Why build a flimsy government trailer, they asked, when it was possible to build a sturdy, long-lasting cottage -- especially one as charming as the "Katrina cottage," designed in a Southern vernacular style, with a steep metal roof and a deep front porch?

Tailgating isn't just for tailgates anymore. What used to be a simple pregame picnic lunch served out of the back of a pickup truck or station wagon has become a multibillion-dollar business that, to some fans, is more important than the game itself. And few people know that better than Jeff Campbell, owner and, until recently, sole employee of Gameday Customs of Long Beach. Campbell outfits trailers designed specifically for the care and feeding of tailgaters.

At Uncle Henry's Smokehouse Bar B Que in Hope, Ark., the lunchtime crowd filled every table Thursday -- all 10 of them. At City Hall, the phones were ringing off the hook. And out at the airport, a private pilot who just turned 45 said she didn't expect to live long enough to see things get back to normal. All because of the latest example of how federal, state and local officials have responded to Hurricane Katrina. Time was, Hope was known primarily as the childhood home of President Clinton.

A tractor-trailer crashed on a Houston freeway and dumped about 40 tons of gravel on a woman's car, but officials said she survived after bystanders helped rescue crews dig her out. The woman was reportedly conscious and alert and was taken to a hospital. It took about 40 minutes to free her from the pancaked vehicle after the trailer overturned, officials said.