FEMA Trailers Slow To Reach Hurricane Ida Victims

Thousands of Louisianans seeking federally provided travel-trailers may have to wait months longer, FEMA’s top official said Monday.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration has identified about 3,000 people who will qualify to get the trailers, Administrator Deanne Criswell said. But "it’s gonna take months" before all of those trailers are in place, she added.

Criswell made the comments after visiting with leaders from St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes Monday afternoon in Hahnville.

In the meantime, state officials have begun deploying more than 300 trailers in the first stages of a similar state-run program for people whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Ida. Overall, the state bought approximately 2,000 trailers, though only 158 are currently inhabited, said Casey Tingle, acting director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or GOHSEP.