FEMA Won't Use Travel Trailers to Assist Wildfire Victims

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 26, 2007 at 2:52 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

FEMA is opting not to use travel trailers to help people who lost their homes in the wildfires. Some mobile homes are being made available, but so far they are only going to fire victims on Indian res

FEMA is opting not to use travel trailers to help people who lost their homes in the wildfires. Some mobile homes are being made available, but so far they are only going to fire victims on Indian reservations. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

When he visited San Diego after the wildfires, FEMA Director David Paulison said he would prefer to see fire victims given rental assistance rather than travel trailers to tide them over till their homes are rebuilt.

Trailers used on the Gulf Coast after hurricane Katrina were found to contain formaldehyde that caused severe respiratory problems in people who moved in.

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FEMA spokesman Gene Romano says the agency isn't offering trailers to San Diegans.

Romano : There are no travel trailers that will be used for California wildfire applicants, the units that are being considered here are full size mobile homes.

This week FEMA is conducting site inspections on the Rincoln and La Jolla Indian reservations before bringing in 13 mobile homes for victims. A few dozen more mobile homes are at a staging in Riverside.

But Romano says rather than offering these to other victims, FEMA has deployed teams of people to look for places they can rent.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.