FEMA To Deploy Manufactured Housing Units in Aftermath Of California Fire Disaster and West Virginia Floods
June 23rd, 2016 will be remembered as a day of “Infamy.” By both the victims of the flood disaster in West Virginia, as well as the equally devastating fires that destroyed hundreds of homes in Kern County, California. Ironically, both of these catastrophic natural disasters on the East and West Coast occurred on the same day, June 23rd, 2016.
Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of declared natural disasters across the United States. FEMA, a.k.a. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has long utilized a large inventory of MHUs (manufactured housing units) as a means of responding to the need for temporary structures for the many displaced victims; providing emergency housing for residents that didn’t have adequate insurance to cover their structural losses.
These recent stories making headlines from coast-to-coast emphasize the important role that prefabricated structures play in helping victims quickly recover a sense of normalcy after these life-altering natural disasters.
FEMA Plans on Rolling Out MHUs For Erskine Fire Victims – According to BakersfieldNow.com, as fires currently rage through the remote area of Big Sur California, state officials have announced they’ve devised a plan to make available “FEMA trailers” for qualified victims of the recent inferno dubbed the “Erskine Fire,” located in Kern County, CA. Providing emergency housing for 71 of the 285 structures and their displaced residents,The California Office of Emergency Services noted that surplus “manufactured housing” would soon be made available. Per California’s OES Chief Deputy Director…
“We’re probably a few weeks out.”
Additional MHUs For West Virginia Flood Victims – On July 25, MFH NEWS and Views reported that FEMA manufactured units would only be made available for the victims of Kanawha and Greenbrier Counties. After further consideration, FEMA has now decided to include Nicholas and Clay Counties as additional recipients of their MHUs. The additional allocation of these manufactured units was necessitated after an initial internal assessment of the current availability discovered an insufficient inventory of rental properties currently available in Clay County. As noted by Greg Fitzwater, the President of the Clay County Commission from FEMA, when he told West Virginia’s Metro news:
“Where are they going to rent … we did a study and here are the results
– there ain’t no places to rent in Clay County”.
MFH ANALYSIS: FEMA has thousands of manufactured housing units that can be shipped to any declared disaster for temporary housing assistance at any location in the nation. FEMA MHUs are typically occupied by displaced residential victims for a period of 12 to 18 months after first being vetted through a qualification process. Though considered “temporary,” quite often these prefabricated housing units become permanent structures, with the resident paying pennies on the dollar to gain clear title to these manufactured homes. With fingers crossed, we at manufacturedhomes.com hope the victims of this summer’s many natural disasters will soon be made whole.
