Cause You Know, Those Sewage Connections Are Completely the State and Local Governments' Resonsibility
Remember when President Bush promised to have 200,000 or so evacuated families housed in readymade trailers New Orleans lickety-split, like in mid-October? It seems like, oh, only last Thursday. But as Spencer Hsiu and Ceci Connelly report in today's WaPo, there's no project too big for a crony-infested agency like FEMA to mung up royally:
Builders of manufactured housing say red tape has bottlenecked contract orders, which may take as long as 12 months to fill. Congress is considering a new program to offer housing vouchers to the displaced. Meanwhile, planners from Baton Rouge, La., to Washington fear there is no government-wide housing strategy, and no one is certain how many displaced families will return to the Gulf Coast. . . . The manufactured housing industry says it will take six months to build 40,000 trailers. Of 600 trailer sites proposed so far, only 5 percent have ready access to water, sewer, power and other services.
Maybe we should start planning now for Rita evacuees to bivouac on Barbara Bush's porch.--HOLLY MARTINS