The Louisiana floods of 2016 devastated Baton Rouge, and left many without homes.
It also left more questions than answers in the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
And now, one member of Congress is demanding answers, including why 84-year-old Baton Rouge resident Everett Wilson died in his temporary FEMA home on October 25th from overheating.
According to the Daily Caller, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (HOGR) chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) demanded those answers after discovering a slew of problems with FEMA’s use of post-disaster temporary housing.
In a formal letter to FEMA Acting Administrator Robert Fenton, Chaffetz asked Fenton to provide records explaining how the agency botched its deployment of manufactured housing units (MHUs) in the wake of August 2016 floods.
“The committee continues to learn of high levels of dissatisfaction from survivors and local officials regarding FEMA’s recovery efforts,” wrote Chaffetz.
In the death of Wilson, Chaffetz clearly defines what he sees as a significant issue with the FEMA units.
“When authorities inspected the (unit), they discovered temperatures over 137.5 degrees Fahrenheit with the air conditioning and heating control unit reading 50 degrees Fahrenheit,” wrote Chaffetz.
In addition to the death of Wilson, the letter also points out other issues, including FEMA sending a housing unit to a dead person’s address, delivery of a housing unit to the wrong address, and temporary housing units that were unused and cost as much as $340,000.
The cap for assistance under federal law is $33,000.
“FEMA failed to fix many of the problems discussed at a September, 2016, HOGR hearing, such as the agency’s poor communication and failure to properly distribute assistance funds to survivors,” wrote Chaffetz.
On Friday, FEMA responded.
“FEMA received the Chairman’s letter, and the Agency will respond, as requested, directly to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,” said FEMA deputy affairs director Eileen Lainez.
“While we did not know if the thermostat led to overheating in the unit, and while a review of our maintenance records of occupied units did not identify any systemic issues, FEMA took the precautionary step of replacing the thermostats in other occupied units manufactured before 2016.”
The Daily Business News will continue to monitor this story and responses from FEMA.
Rep. Chaffetz letter is linked here.
For more on the Louisiana floods, and questions related to FEMA’s response, click here. ##
(Image credits are as shown above.)
Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.
