Democrats and Republicans played out a partisan fight Wednesday over who is to blame for housing hurricane victims in toxic trailers.

Over one million people were displaced after hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Thousands were sent to live in emergency travel trailers that had poisonous levels of formaldehyde. Prolonged exposure can lead to breathing problems and is believed to cause cancer too.

On Wednesday, in Congressional hearings, Democrats said the manufacturers should have taken more tests. Republicans blamed the government for not having set sufficient standards.

There's probably some truth on both sides, but amidst all the finger-pointing, Gulf Stream Coach (which received more than $500 million in trailer contracts) said the company didn't need new tests – or standards. They knew formaldehyde levels were as much as forty-five times above acceptable levels, but company CEO Jim Shea said the results were deemed "irrelevant information" – because the Federal Emergency Management Agency already knew the levels were high.

It's a great opportunity for politicians to score their points, but the facts remain. For years, employees from Gulf Stream Coach, have said they suffer effects from formaldehyde exposure, including nose bleeds, shortness of breath, dizziness, and bleeding ears. Gulf Coast trailer dwellers have complained about the trailers almost since day one.

The true tragedy is Katrina victims still occupy 15,000 travel trailers in the Gulf Coast. What we need are not more hearings. Gulf Goast victims need healthy homes.

This Saturday, in Miami, community organizers will gather to discuss the housing crisis across the Gulf Coast Region, and within Miami itself. Sustainability: we know what it's not (eg. FEMA trailers. ) But what is it, exactly? And what models exist? This is the sort of conversation that needs to be part of the election season conversation -- but probably won't be. It will be the topic of Live From Main Street, the second of five town-hall style meetings, produced by the Media Consortium with GRITtv. For more on Live From Main Street, go to livefrommainstreet.org. And come out Saturday, to the Lyric Theater, to make your voice heard.

The F Word is a daily commentary by Laura Flanders on GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) or at GRITtv.org. And become a subscriber.

Comments (7)

1. Posted by 2HAPPY at 07/10/2008 @ 7:31pm

   So, HAPP have "welfare queens" turned into "FEMA trailer queens"?

   Posted by Maskdelta at 07/10/2008 @ 8:23pm

2. well...

   with all that formaldehyde at least when they die they won't need to be enbalmed...

   its a wonderful life!

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/10/2008 @ 9:44pm

3. FEMA'S efforts in all of this have truely been pathetic.

   Next time there's a disaster down there, people would be better off looking to the Iowans for help, not the Govt.

   Posted by william.harry13 at 07/11/2008 @ 09:32am

4. 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result' -- (attributed to Albert Einstein, among others)

   'Growing up in New Orleans' historic 9th Ward, Mia Adams heard stories about how Hurricane Betsy devastated the neighborhood in 1965. Adams, now staying in Georgia, is trying to reach members of her family who also fled New Orleans to escape Hurricane Katrina.' -- http://www.npr.org/ templates/story/story.php? storyId=4826455

   'The neighborhood, which exists on reclaimed land below sea level and surrounded by levees, ... In 1965, the area suffered extensive flooding during Hurricane Betsy, just 9 years after limited flooding from Hurricane Flossy.' -- http://www.seaony.org /publications/article.php? id=63&p=2

   'There are some in post-Katrina New Orleans who say that the Lower Ninth Ward cannot "come back," that the area will be forced to return to the earlier days .... Many of the former residents, however, are determined to return to the Lower Ninth and rebuild their community -- as determined as their forebears, who first claimed the ground from swampland and then reclaimed it once again after Hurricane Betsy tried to drown it.' -- http://nutrias.org/ ~nopl/monthly/may2006/ may2006.htm

   'The Lakeview, Gentilly, and Ninth Ward areas occupy the old cypress swamps.' -- http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/ ~new_orleans/report/ Draft/CH_4.pdf

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 07/11/2008 @ 10:07am

5. 'They said it was daft to build a castle in the swamp. But I built one anyway. It sank into the swamp.' -- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 07/11/2008 @ 10:11am

6. 'They said it was daft to build a castle in the swamp. But I built one anyway. It sank into the swamp.' -- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 07/11/2008 @ 10:11am

   yeah,

   and vegas is in the middle of the desert.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 07/12/2008 @ 10:14pm

7. '...sandy silence, all alone,/ Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws/ The only shadow that the Desert knows:/ "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,/ "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows/ "The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,/ Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose/ The site of this forgotten Babylon....' -- 'Ozymandias' -- Horace Smith -- 1817

   'But it's in the desert that a lot of the towns problems are solved' -- 'Casino' -- Martin Scorsese

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 07/14/2008 @ 09:03am