35,000 must move out of FEMA's travel trailers

More than 35,000 hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast will be moved into new housing in the next few months, after the chemical-laden air inside their FEMA travel trailers was deemed potentially unsafe to breathe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.

The CDC's announcement doesn't apply to those living in thousands of FEMA mobile homes, 93 of which are sheltering flood victims in southeastern Minnesota. But the air inside the mobile homes, some of which have been donated or sold to private owners, is also being tested for levels of formaldehyde, a wood preservative used in glue that bonds particle board, flooring and other construction material.

Thursday's announcement was a reversal from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's stance that its emergency housing wasn't a health threat, despite complaints from hurricane victims of difficulty breathing and other medical issues.

Testing by the CDC found formaldehyde at elevated concentrations in about one-third of 519 travel trailers and mobile homes tested in December and January in Mississippi and Louisiana.

In a news conference Thursday, FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison and CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said they hope to get people out of the trailers before summer, when heat and lack of ventilation could make formaldehyde accumulations worse.

"The real issue is not what it will cost, but how fast we can move people out," Paulison said.

The CDC said that exposure to the gas at the concentrations measured in a recent study could affect the health of residents over time, especially for the elderly, infants and those suffering from asthma or other respiratory problems.

Victims of flooding last summer in southeastern Minnesota are living in 93 FEMA mobile homes and are not directly affected by the recommendations. FEMA officials said that only a few mobile homes -- which are much longer than the towable travel trailers --were tested in the Gulf Coast.

"Some mobile homes tested very high here, which was a surprise to us," Paulison said. "So we're going to make sure that we test any of our mobile homes before we put them on the ground and put people in them."

Michelle Ekern, who lives in one of the FEMA mobile homes in Rushford, Minn., said she and her husband and 4-year-old daughter have not experienced any odors or breathing problems since they moved into the unit in October. "I know what formaldehyde smells like, and we're not having those issues," she said.

However, Mary Anderson said she had breathing problems almost as soon as she walked into a FEMA mobile home that her daughter and her fiance rented in a mobile home park in Lexington, just north of St. Paul. The couple also experienced chest pains and breathing problems, Anderson said, and noticed that their infant daughter was sleeping for unusually long periods of time. They followed a doctor's advice and vacated the unit after three days.

"Boy oh boy, I'm really glad that the news is getting out nationwide about these trailers," said Anderson. "I think the mobile homes will be just as bad as the trailers once more of them are tested, but progress is slow and FEMA kind of looks at one thing at a time."

The mobile home was one of six acquired from FEMA in Alabama and Arkansas and trucked to the Paul Revere Cooperative mobile home park in Lexington.

Warren Kramer, director of housing development for the group that acquired the homes, said Thursday that all six of the units were tested last week. "I just got a verbal report from engineering firm and the homes tested well within the [acceptable] limits," Kramer said. "We're delighted about that and we look forward to moving on beyond this."

Fillmore County Commissioner Randy Dahl said he has heard no complaints or concerns about odors or health problems from those living in FEMA mobile homes in southeastern Minnesota, mainly in Rushford. The agency provided the homes last summer after flooding devastated the area, and Dahl said residents are grateful to have a place to live as they rebuild their lives and homes.

However, he said he and others are paying attention to the formaldehyde issue. "It's a concern, and it's something we've been kind of trying to keep an eye on, but in the short term nobody's really noticed anything," he said.

State health officials tested three FEMA mobile homes in the Winona area in December. They reported that the concentrations were low, and that no testing of additional units is planned.

The CDC found average concentrations of formaldehyde in the Gulf Coast trailers at 77 parts per billion, about five times higher than in normal homes. Long-term exposure at that level is linked to higher cancer risk, according to the CDC report, and even higher concentrations can cause or worsen respiratory illnesses.

The findings have set off a fast-paced effort to find different housing for approximately 38,000 families still living in the trailers, with priority given to the elderly, those with children, and residents with chronic respiratory illness. At its peak after the 2005 hurricanes, FEMA placed storm victims in about 145,000 trailers and mobile homes.

University of Minnesota student Kathryn Nelson, on assignment for the Star Tribune, contributed to this report. Tom Meersman • 612-673-7388