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David Friedman / NBC News
File photo shows a FEMA trailer park near Highway 90 in Bay St. Louis, Miss., in 2007.
More than six years after Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina began experiencing adverse health effects while living in travel trailers provided by the federal government for temporary housing, a federal judge in New Orleans has given his final approval to a $42.6 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging that the units emitted hazardous levels of the toxic chemical formaldehyde.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt approved the deal Thursday after hearing from attorneys who brokered the agreement between the plaintiffs and more than two dozen manufacturers of mobile homes provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Roughly 55,000 residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas will be eligible for shares of $37.5 million paid by more than two dozen manufacturers, the Associated Press reported. They also can get shares of a separate $5.1 million settlement with FEMA contractors that installed and maintained the units.
Dan Balhoff, a court-appointed special master, will determine the plaintiffs' awards, the AP said. Up to 48 percent of the total settlement money – or approximately $20,5 million -- will be deducted for attorneys' fees and costs, it said. Assuming the remainder is divided equally among 55,000 plaintiffs, the plaintiffs would receive about $4,020 apiece.
Payments are expected to go out late this year or early next year, the AP said.
Engelhardt presided over three trials for claims against FEMA trailer manufacturers and installers after he was picked in 2007 to oversee hundreds of consolidated lawsuits. The juries in all three trials sided with the companies and didn't award any damages.
As msnbc.com (now NBCNews.com) first reported in July 2006, residents of the trailers began complaining of headaches, nosebleeds and breathing difficulty shortly after moving into the trailers, which were trucked to the Gulf Coast by the tens of thousands after Katrina and Rita devastated the area in rapid succession in 2005.
Air quality tests of 44 FEMA trailers in early 2006 conducted by the Sierra Club found formaldehyde concentrations as high as 0.34 parts per million – a level nearly equal to what a professional embalmer would be exposed to on the job, according to one study of the chemical’s workplace effects.
And government tests on hundreds of trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi announced in 2008 found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.
FEMA, which isn't a party to the settlements, had long downplayed the health risks from formaldehyde exposure before those test results were announced.
It eventually began auctioning off the units as “scrap” — meaning they should not be used for human habitation — in October 2008, but some unscrupulous buyers apparently were able to dodge regulations and return them to the housing pool.
Formaldehyde gas -- the airborne form of a chemical used in a wide variety of products, including composite wood and plywood panels in the travel trailers that FEMA purchased to house hurricane victims -- is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the EPA.
Gerald Meunier, a lead plaintiffs' attorney, told the AP that the deal provides residents with "somewhat modest" compensation but allows both sides to avoid the expense and risks of protracted litigation.
"Dollar amounts alone do not determine whether a settlement is fair and reasonable," he said.
Jim Percy, a lawyer for the trailer makers, said Engelhardt would have had to try cases individually or transfer suits to other jurisdictions if the settlement wasn't reached.
"It was not going to end quickly, and it was going to be even more monumental for all the parties concerned," he said.
But that doesn't mean the deal isn't a disappointment for many residents who blame their illnesses on the cramped trailers they occupied for months on end.
"We were told not to look for much," said Anthony Dixon, a New Orleans resident who says he developed asthma while living in a FEMA trailer for two years.
Dixon, 58, attended the hearing with his wife and mother to learn more about the deal.
"We're glad to get it over with," he added.
Engelhardt noted he received a letter from a woman whose 66-year-old mother, Agnes Mauldin, of Mississippi, died of leukemia in 2008 after living in a FEMA trailer. Mauldin's daughter, Lydia Greenlees, said the settlement offers "very little" for what her family considers to be a wrongful death case.
"I am saddened about the settlement in that I feel like it makes a mockery of my mother's life," Greenlees wrote. "I don't want anyone to think for one second that I view this settlement as a fair trade for my mother's life. I do not."
A group of companies that includes Gulf Stream Coach Inc., Forest River Inc., Vanguard LLC and Monaco Coach Corp. will pay $20 million of the $37.5 million settlement with the trailer makers.
Shaw Environmental Inc., Bechtel Corp., Fluor Enterprises Inc. and CH2M Hill Constructors Inc. are among the FEMA contractors that agreed to pay shares of the separate $5.1 million settlement.
Only a handful of formaldehyde-related claims are still pending, including some against FEMA by a group of Texas residents.
Mike Brunker is the projects editor for NBCNews.com; the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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Here's a dam and levee system to protect you, oh wait, here comes the cavalry to rescue you, oh wait, here's a trailer to live in, oh wait, here's $46.2 million, oh wait, you don't get sh*t. Go away now.
What a monumental cluster F#*k
I don't think people should live in a hole in water surrounded by dirt. This defies logic and is very expensive to maintain, and will fail sometime again and again.
As far as people living in a subsidized trailer and then complain about the problems I say why did you do it. Live on the street or in a tent, nobody forces you to live there. People expect too much from the taxpayer and when it doesn't turn out to be a dream well sue.
More legal lottery winners. Sure wish someone would wrong me, I could use some cash, too. :-(
"Hi, I am from the Government and here to help you."
A newAn OLD campaign slogan waiting to hit the trail.Sheeesh, next thing will be folks getting money for drinking city water.
When pain and misery come the scumbag lawyers have drool running down their neck. They get 20 million of the settlement for carpet smells that caused 4 people to have a headache??
F the lawyers and next time let these people sleep on the ground with the fire ants........
Do the math again, but I think it's more like $400 for each of the 55,000 "victims" rather than $4k for each one.
And, you want this government to get their hands on healthcare?
Three entities are the biggest killers of capitalism in our country. Wall Street, Big Government and Civil Attorneys. They take all kinds of money out of the economy and produce nothing.
Here is a perfect example. We just gave $20 million dollars to attorneys so people could get $400 (not $4000 you moronic NBC "journalist").
We need to stop electing attorneys, they only make money when things are screwed up, so when they pass laws, they make sure things will be screwed up!
The interesting thing is that three successive juries in lawsuits against the trailer manufacturers found for the manufacturers and awarded no damages. This settlement is more about the lawyers recovering for their costs and time and getting out of this mess than it is about compensating anyone who lived in the trailers. The total award will only average out to about $402 per person, not the $4,020 stated in the article ($42.6 million minus $20.5 million to the lawyers leaves $22.1 million divided by 55,000 people = $401.82). I would be surprised if anyone who really thinks they have a case where they can prove real harm did not opt out of this settlement and try and sue the trailer manufacturers on their own. It is not like $400 is a lot to risk if they can find a lawyer to take their case as an individual claim. For example, if the one family really thinks they can prove that their mom's leukemia was caused by the formaldehyde fumes then I would think they would opt out of this extremely low-ball settlement offer and go it alone. Of course after three juries found for the manufacturers I imagine it would be difficult to find a lawyer to take one of these cases on a contingency fee basis.
Maybe Brownie got a kickback from the trailer manufacturers when he bought them for FEMA.
Hmmmmm, we paid over $2 billion for these formalda-trailers, people get sick and the manufacturers get sued for $37.5 million.
That’s still a tidy profit of over $1,962,500,000 for the manufacturers. Not to mention the interest they made on the initial sale since then.
The poor saps that got sick get a whopping $4,020 apiece for their pain and suffering. In the meantime the lawyers walk with $20.5 million. I bet there weren’t 55,000 lawyers involved in this case.
Yep, the American way.
A criminal government run by lawyers, protecting lawyers and the corporations that pay their wages and We The People get the scraps that fall off the table.
If any of you have never heard of “Bread and Circuses” let me explain.
For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it’s from the Roman satirist Juvenal. He lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. By then the once envied Roman Empire was only a distant memory. The once proud Senate, today’s Congress, that witnessed the epic orations of Cato and Cicero, had deteriorated into a figurehead of an institution. He stated that "the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddle no more and longs eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses."
Roman citizens, after decades of corruption and malfeasance by their government, became increasingly addicted to distributions of free food and the distractions of the gladiatorial entertainment in the Coliseum and the chariot races of the Circus Maximus. The once able and motivated Romans could no longer govern themselves as their lives were distracted by mindless self-gratification and submission to the safety of an omnipotently corrupt government.
The term, “Bread and Circuses”, is now used to deplore a population so distracted and subservient to entertainment, personal pleasures and entitlements they no longer value their civic virtues and bow to civil authority with unquestioned obedience. It has also become the general term for government policies that seek short-term solutions to long-term problems in order to avoid public unrest, and more importantly, to simply garner votes.
Sound familiar?
It's unbelievably DISGUSTING that the lawyers will make a fortune from this and the plaintiffs will get virtually nothing.
Once again the victims get screwed and the lawyers get rich.
I sure hope that was satire. It's tough to tell with all the neo-conservative turds and teabaggers though. If it was satire...not bad. If not...
What a Christian attitude. When my fellow man asks for a lifeline...I throw him an anchor. Who would Jesus kill?
SOS, you the victim lose. Past time to reform tort law.
Positive Me
"And, you want this government to get their hands on healthcare?"
Positive You, did you know that in America, congressman and legislators don't dictate the outcome of class-action lawsuits. The people that do that are called "Judges", in some cases "lawyers" and often involve what we call "a jury of our peers".
Any chance to bash the Govt., bash the fool that bought these trailers and allowed people to live in them for TWO YEARS.
So many companies got rich on this disaster that you can't count them all...can you say 'no bid contract' boys and girls ???
Another reason the government should not be taking tax dollars to rescue everyone that wants help! You live in a hole, below sea level, surrounded by water and don't have flood insurance. Well guess what, YOUR A DUMB AZZ and deserve nothing. these companies bought material that was supposed to be safe to use, built thousands of trailers quickly and we all paid to have them made delivered and set up. instead all those that were allowed to live in the trailer instead of their flooded house should be paying all of us back!
Lawyers should never be allowed to receive more then 10% of a claim settlement, They should also be required to pay $ 20k for ever case determined to be frivolous, after the 5th frivolous case they should be disbarred. Any lawyer that makes false or misleading claims during a case should be fined $100k and have license suspended for 1 year with a review board determining if they may have it back after this amount of time.
lvingbarefoot
"Three entities are the biggest killers of capitalism in our country. Wall Street, Big Government and Civil Attorneys. They take all kinds of money out of the economy and produce nothing."
Oh poor capitalism, it can only make $1.9 billion profit off of "big government" from selling toxic trailers, i feel so bad for capitalism. That awful "big government" is making it so hard for companies like Monsanto to genetically modify all our food and those poor capitalist oil companies are getting screwed by "big government" handing them our tax dollars in the form of subsidies when they are making higher profits that at anytime in history. I think I am going to cry a tear for them.
Darn it, those G.W. Bush FEMA trailers in the news again.
I know there are a lot of good people across this nation, but I remember watching people looting in New Orleans-appliances, big screens-not formula and food, but I am sure they took that too. Many people suffered because of those that only cared about themselves. I remember one person got money from Katrina and then also from a hurricane in Texas-Galveston? She had a sister there and so she listed she lived there too. Now those trailers had a problem, but the taxpayers end up paying for people that wouldn't leave and I would like to know how many are still on assistance. Lawyers are the scum of the earth.
p.s. New Orleans is BELOW sea level. Mississippi didn't put up with looting. Help people and then let them sue us.
Patriot Jane, are you capable of reading and reasoning? Doubtful. We, the taxpayers were not sued! The manufacturers who provided inferior products were. And yes, New Orleans is below sea level. So What. there are levies all over the Country sutton nding major rivers. Remember the Midwest floods last year? And Mississippi is not below sea level.
So you jealous a holes who can't fathom a victim getting compensation (too little, in fact), try just once to put yourselves in their place. You'd change your mind in a hurry if you did. Or ,maybe you wouldn't because you can't outside of your small selfish boxes.
DingleB & PatriotJane
oh yes... Chicago has a fire, we rebuild. San Francisco has an earthquake, we rebuild. NYC gets hit with two terrorist planes, we rebuild. The midwest floods, we rebuild. Fires burn cities in the west, we rebuild. You know, last time I checked, this is the United States of America, and the words "WE THE PEOPLE" Apply to everyone, including the PEOPLE of New Orleans.
What a crock of horse hockey. Those trailers are fine. They were temporary shelters. All fumes are gone in a matter of days after they were built.
More lottery winners. Nothing less. Everybody's out for the big buck. Get your buddy in baggage handling to strap a dildo to your suitcase, and make a scene, get millions. Anybody can do it.
Courts need to check themselves. People need to stop being so greedy.
Out of the woods
My thoughts exactly. Anything NEW has chemicals and fumes to clear out. You open the windows, turn on fans, stay outside during clear weather for a while and it clears up. Also, there were multiple builders involved. Is it supposed to be a conspiracy between all of the companies to deliberately HURT all of those people? If it had been one manufacturer I could see, in the haste to provide shelter to the Katrina/Rita victims, that they MIGHT have rushed a safety process that would elevate the formaldehyde levels, might not dozens.
I also agree with one of the previous posters who said that if you are getting sick from the trailers, get out. But YEARS after Katrina, people were still living in those trailers. It is better than having to pay to rebuild you old homes for some I guess. Even today there are still homes with tarps and Xes painted on them in the Ninth Ward. WHY???? The city should have at least razed those houses. They are a safety hazard to anyone living in the area. Better to live in a tent on the old property than to try to survive in one of those homes or a supposedly toxic trailer.
Before anyone says I should shut my mouth that I don't know what it is like to live in a tent. Yes I do. My husband, child and I lived in a tent for six months during a late Texas spring, summer. and fall once. It was hard, but much better than staying in a "toxic" trailer or mold infested rat trap. I did it without government assistance to survive.
Pocket change for Forrest River Inc.! They're owned by Warren Buffet!
If you don't like the way government is run stop voting the same sellouts back into office. Vote against incumbents and vote for independents, dilute the rats nest and let them know that if they don't start serving the people instead of special interests they will be fired.
Just a heads-up regarding levee history in South Louisiana. When the U.S. government first proposed tasking the Army Corp of Engineers to build and maintain a levee system, there was evidence that it would worsen flooding. This evidence has been substantiated by history.
It was decided to build the levee system anyway.... not for the residents, but for commece and profit. Where floodwater used to spread over thousands of acres of wetlands to the depth of a few inches, it now floods in feet. Have you ever noticed that the pre-levee Antebellum homes were built 4-5 feet off the ground? The original settlers were friends with the water and floods were predictable. Many families of south Louisiana have been displaced by levee systems and didn't want it in the first place.
It was built to facilitate shipping and commerce. It was "touted and sold" to residents as "an improvement". Then the wetlands were dredged for oil production and further displacement occurred. Means of livelihood destroyed. Fisheries ruined. People displaced for profit. Whole community cultures subsided. Mostly due to the demand for petroleum.
And those don't are not aware of this history want to blame the residents for being on the take? I am afraid some of you are mis-informed. There is a lot to be said for doing a little research about people you don't know before you ASSume too much.
A little secret... If you purchase a trailer that comes new from the manufacturer it will have extremely high formaldehyde levels if you leave it closed up on a hot day. Most even come with warnings that tell you to air it out constantly for the first month.
! should have just left them all in the flooded stinky moldy meldew infested houses! ungrateful phucks just want money and handouts
It sounds like most of you people would be happier to see these people dead or in labor camps. Disgusting.
1truthspeaker:
like the dying man said on his death bed: "I want to die like my Saviour, put my lawyer on my right and my doctor on my left, I want to die between two thieves!"
20 million huh?
Class action lawsuits tend to benefit the lawyers rather than the victims.
That is the purpose of them. If corporations know they will be sued if they screw up too much they will be less likely to try to harm people for money.
They should never be class action though, 20 million dollars to attorneys and $400 to victims, GROSS!
On it, you are "taxed" on products you buy in the form of insurance cost being passed on to the consumer. Therefore reducing the spending power of the consumer and hurting our economy.
Our tort laws are horrible and benefit the people who write them, attorneys!
This is why we are in dire need of tort reform.Nobody forced anybody to live in the FEMA trailers.People that were self sufficient didn't live in any of them.
Who gives a rat's ass; we all know it wasn't, near, what they lost in their health!
You pity mouther's who say things like let them live under the stars! You must have been taken care of by your parents, or you grandmother, or whomever! You are all trash to me, because the only "Almighty" that you care about, is the "almighty" dollar!
I am ashamed that i volunteered for vietnam, and gave so much of my physical, not to mention, my mental, self to make sure you idiots could say the "crap" that you are saying!
May GOD have mercy on America; because if you mindless, video game playing, titty suckers, are the future! I pray that GOD takes me "home", because you make me sick!
But i, feel sure you will have some smart ass comeback, because you don't even know the meaning of life, much less appreciate it!
WWJD! Something you all should ponder, and dwell upon!
This is a big reason why healthcare is so expensive.
Doctors are like wildebeests on the Serengeti.
Miss something and that predator lawyer is going to kill you.
Paul_W: you got that right!!!!
Paul W. I was a member of the class action lawsuit against AmeriDebt who took hundreds of dollars from me for credit repair and didn't help me at all. when the case settled, the lawyers got the gold mine and the claimants got the shaft. As for my share, I got a letter from the lawyers stating that because it was such a small amount, it would be used to pay for the pencils, pens, erasers, etc. that they used in the case. I wish I had saved that letter. I should have framed it. I got nothing at all and the lawyers even got paid for the use of their pencils, pens, etc. My credit is still not repaired after all of this. There is a judgment showing against me with the 3 credit bureaus even though the judgment was in error and vacated by order of the court. The credit bureaus will not remove the non-existent judgment. I consulted a lawyer about this, but that costs money. In the meantime, I pay extra for car insurance because of this judgment - and it doesn't even exist. I once listened to one considered the lawyers lawyer on TV spouting off about how law isn't about justice. Say what? Why do we have a justice department? I know law isn't about justice - it's about money and that's all folks.
So these people are not exposed to so called toxic fumes next time let live under the stars. A problem solved naturally.
Sounds like an idiotic response. Guess they wanted the hurricane to destroy their homes. No doubt you loss electric for an hour and you scream bloody murder.
If the FEMA trailer residents had slept under the stars, they would be suing for radon gas or something like that.
The article says they will get about $4000 apiece. Okay -- I'm not really good at math, but according to my calculator, $42,600,000 ($37.5 + $5.1 million) divided between 55,000 people is $775. But it says lawyers are taking about 1/2 of that total. They won't get more than a 2-3 hundred bucks.
Deb-oh-rah is right. They will only get about $400 each, not $4000.
But at least the lawyers got 20 mil. LOL
Should have been paid much more than $400.
No, they got a free trailer to live in. Next time, charge them rent. Don't make them pay unless they sue.
Better yet, disqualify them for all future bailouts as they live in the middle of a hurricane zone under sea level and refuse to move.
Either raise New Orleans 20 feet above sea level, or declare the entire city unfit for human habitation.
I see this as the victom sueing his savior. many suts are brought against someone who saves someones life because in the process they may have injured them. Broke and arm dragging them from a burning car or something like that. These people choose to live below sea leavel. FEMA gave them temp homes to live in at OUR expense. Obviously they spent most of thier time sitting on their butts in the air conditioned trailer waiting for the meals on wheels truck to show up and thier next govment shek to come. These trailer were not built any differently than any other travel trailer or mobil home built in the last 50 years. At some point people must take responsibility for themselves. If the feumes from these new trailers were bothering people they should have brought it to someones attention at the time. At the very least they should have spent less time in them and aired them out more. I agree with others here the next time ( and there will be a next time ) simply put up tents and mass house them. Tents would be cheaper and faster to set up and maintain. The Army uses them all the time.
deb-oh.... really good!!
how about do the math of $$16 Trillion by 350 million Americans.....that is a really scarey number obama will not talk about!!
except that it is bushs fault or some other smoke& mirror!!! He had the White house & senate for all 4 years,,,very poor leadership!!
by the way, I lived in Fla or 10 years and 3 big storms...the people you could count on were the Mormon Church and Salvation Army...Red Cross was always last and worthless!!! FEMA is just a JOKE!!!
You must live in a fantasy world. Who exactly is going to make this call? Obama? LOL.
The federal government has no authority to make that kind of decision.
use eminent domain to turn it into a wildlife preserve?
Smells like a math error to me! Give them an "F" for fact checking.
People like to blame the government, but FEMA made a good-faith effort to provide housing. They had no reason to suspect that the trailers they ordered would be toxic. As for the woman whose mother died from leukemia, there is no way to prove that her mother got leukemia due to formaldehyde. Cancers usually take much longer than that to develop. Just because something raises the RISK of cancer doesn't mean that every cancer suffered by people exposed to the toxic substance is due to that substance. Morticians aren't exactly dropping like flies, and they're exposed for much longer. Take the money and move on.
FEMA "manufacturers" paid the award.
You hit the point right on. How many other people living in these trailers ended up with Cancer? Can it even be proved what type of cancer formaldahyde cause? Sorry for the people lost however people get cancer from many sources & some time it is genetic.
Next time don't take handouts.
dkj-4 so if for some reason you house burned down to the ground with your wallet, money, ID, cell phone and you left with the night wear on your back and not a nickle you would just suck it up and not take what ever help you need till you could prove you had money and other things??????
The Katrina "victims have made a bloody fortune from the taxpayer. Why would they want to live anywhere else. Then on the other hand, if O'bama is re-elected there want be any taxpayer money to bail everyone out next time. Because there want be any jobs for the rest of us who WANT to work for a living instead of relying on the government tit.
pgard, sounds like we need to "gard" against you! #1 the victims didn't make @!$%# off the taxpayer; the settlement was paid by the manufacturers; #2 you bloody need to learn how to spell, it's "won't, not wan't"! Where are you "bloody" from? Britain? I thought we AMERICANS ridded ourselves of you long ago! Regardless, you are a "bloody", cold hearted person! What if your home was destroyed?
You, need to get a life, and let everyone live their's! People like you are what is wrong with OUR Country!
I'll be so glad when JESUS comes back and "kicks people like you's bloody arse" lol
so if a crack house opened next door to you you would just leave? Or would you demand the police do some thing?
"A group of companies that includes Gulf Stream Coach Inc., Forest River Inc., Vanguard LLC and Monaco Coach Corp. will pay $20 million of the $37.5 million settlement with the trailer makers."
Remember these shoddy companies.
"Good job, Brownie." - George W. Bush
Yes, when Bush said that there were hundreds of trailers that were in Massachussets waiting to be shipped to New Orleans. Never happened.
Toxic trailers on Bush's watch? It's Obama's fault!
Good job, Brownie!
Looks like the attorneys made out like bandits on this one, again.
Don't complain, it's the capitalistic system at its best.
Don't blame the att'ys
Attorney are to blame and they kill capitalism, they produce NOTHING!
So.. are any of the corporations that make and sell the TOXIC producing materials going to be fined by the all mighty federal government ?? Guess the folks in a hurricane are expendable for a buck.
Warren, can you read, or do you have your head up your ass? The corporations are the ones that paid the settlement; though, in my opinion, wasn't near enough!
so you can harm people if you can pay a settlement?
Typical ending of a typical class action.
Next time there is a disaster the size of Katrina good luck getting any company to furnish temporay(?) trailers for shelter without demanding government guarantees that holds them immune from any liabilty.
Either that or the next group of victims will end up sleeping with the snakes.
Give them a blue tarp, a couple of tent poles and some rope. I remember 3 years after Katrina there were people still living in hotels with the government paying the bill and some bleeding heart telling the story on how the government was kicking them out. 3 YEARS! When do you take personal responsibility for your own well being. I just went thru a flood event and I didn't ask the government for $h!t. Why bother, they are worthless as far as I"m concerned.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursed the utility about $7.6 million for expenses incurred from the 2006 tornadoes. The utility says those expenses were approved by on-site FEMA representatives at the time.
Dam those losers in the midwest taking my tax money.
Joplin was no better. Hands out..
This was taxpayer money, not a settlement by a PRIVATE COMPANY for producing substandard products. Maybe you should demand your tax money back from those other area. Or maybe you think those people deserve it more?
onermailliw
you are aware that we are not just talking about a building being gone. we are talking about businesses not coming back. Whole Malls ever repaired.
how ignorant are you people of how much was wiped out!
What a bunch of @!$%#ing losers - give'em a place to lay their greasy heads and they get a bunch of rectums (lawyers) to sue you. I hate what this country has become.
Guess we could say the same thing about the midwest when tornado's destroyed towns. Leave them on their own, right?
Rev J Wright,
May GOD have mercy on your sorry ass; you are, as well, what is wrong with OUR country! Let me ask you one thing? Have you ever given anything to defend this country, so you could say such hateful words, and still be allowed to live?
Move to the middle east and eat your words; you care nothing about anything but yourself!!!?
You have no right to use the letters REV, you are nowhere close to GOD, or HIS messengers!
racists much?
Wow Bush is still costing us money oh wait I don't want to blame him for anything cause the right will get mad!!
No it's you bleeding heart libbys that got your mouth on the government tit that is sucking this country dry. All I ask to work, pay my taxes, let me live the way I see fit, and leave me the hell alone. I don't need anything from the government, but the government sure wants my tax money and they get a tidy sum of it.
Not Bush costing us this money.. It is some of that 47% who think they are owed a good life by the government that Romney was talking about...........
onermailliw
Wealth does not happen in a vacuum!
With a job or workers or a loan or other things, nothing happens.
no one can claim to have got to the top just on their own.
so yea what ever!
Shouldn't the trailer manufacturer be fully responsible for that money since they were the ones who built those pieces of $hit.....just curious. Why is the tax payer on the hook for even a nickel of that money?
Let's read the headline real SLOW....
"Class-action suit against FEMA trailer manufacturers settled for $42.6 million"
Now, you see the word MANUFACTURERS, RIGHT?
so why is every one saying all the things they are say?
a company hurt people, and they got sued.
whats with all the hate in the other comments?
There are hundreds of the old FEMA trailers floating around the S.TX oil fields.
What bothered me as much as the dangers of the chemicals, which the government would probably not check for even though it has been a problem in manufactured housing for years, was the shoddy construction of the units. I don't know how much the government paid for these things but they are made from wood products that resemble cardboard.
Sad, sad, sad how humans behave.
Once again, the blood sucking lawyers walk away with a nice fat payday and both the plaintiffs and the defendants get screwed.
Notice who the biggest winners in this case are.....the lawyers! just saying why should the lawyer's get almost 50% of this settlement money?
I would sue the hell out of all of these companies on my own. One would probably get way more than 4000 bucks! Check out these attorneys too....almost 50% of the money goes to these fat a$$ greedy pigs. How does that help those people? What should really happen is the trailer manufacturers should be responsible for each and every one of these peoples healthcare for life...and if their biz goes under because of it the owners personal assets should be seized as well....throw their a$$es on the street to live in a dumpster and give that money to these people too! Some of these people will go on to have hundreds of thousands of dollars of healthcare costs DIRECTLY related to exposure while staying in these rat traps...and all each gets is 4000 measly dollars....yeah that is going to help them do uh.....nothing.
And meanwhile these Jackoff attorneys get to take home half the settlement?....really?
Classic case of nobody wins except attorneys. This, and every other class action lawsuit, is proof of our broke ass system that favors corporations, lawyers, bankers and rich folks over the masses.
I'm ranting and a bit irrational here of course but it has to pi$$ you off to hear that people get 4000 measly bucks for something that will potentially cost them 10 to 20 times that number in healthcare costs over their lifespan.
It is worse than that $42,600,000/55,000(people) = $774.54 *.52 (52% (%48 to lawyers)) = $402.76. So they get a measly 400 bucks.
This stuff makes me sick, MOVE, you don't have to live there, seven years later and they are still living there, rent free.
You make it sound so east. no money yet you think they have the resources to move. Go down and tell those people that.
kat4349916,
You make me sick; why don't you move; oh! Maybe you will have to one day; then what will you say?
I am sick of you heartless, cold, SOB's
I risked my life in the service of OUR Country, so you snotty, spoiled, non-caring people could say, what you are saying!
GOD Have Mercy on America! I say so because the only "almighty" that you care about is the dollar", not THE ONLY ALMIGHTY, OUR GOD, OUR FATHER, OUR CREATOR!
So these trailer were produced for the commercial RV market before the storm/flood and it wasn't a problem before the flood/storm? I thought that the market and corporate responsibility prevented thing like this.
Probably used the same cheap crap Chinese materials that caused the same toxic results in sheet rock. that was big uproar and people got paid back. Odd that no one complained about that.
Most of the people who were Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina are Black and they are Democrats. The lawyers are largely Democrats, and the Judges are lawyers with a black robe and that pretty much makes them Democrats too. Virtually all Democrats who hold public office on the national level are lawyers and that is where the laws of the land are made.
I don't know if it the Democrats who are looting the country, or is the lawyers. Or, maybe this is just the opening shot of the 3rd stimulus program.
Any way you look at it...I want a seat at the table too.
You're an idiot. Care to back that up with some facts?
Damm Bill you got the get them damm Democrats on today ease up your going have a break down than we will to put you on the goverment dole!!
Oh, yet, another idiot! Bill H; gosh boy; you need to pay more attention; most all, legislators are lawyers!
You, and your kind, are useless; spoiled, ignorant, blind, non-caring; and one day, you will need help, and, GOD forgive me, i hope you get it from someone just like you!
Really? I was there. The area is culturally diverse. Italian, German, Cajun, Blacks, Latinos and lots of other PEOPLE.
That's what we get for giving something away for free. Learn from it
It wasn't free to 53% of us!
So you're one of those people who think seniors living on SSI and military living on that pension are blood suckers? Then why are we paying the billions to treat military personnel for probably the rest of their lives? they are nothing but bloodsuckers in your eyes.
No, I am saying 53% had to pay. There are many VALID reasons some did not have to.
The problem is Democrats want people dependent on government because it gives them more power and control over them and that is gross.
And you are a @!$%#ing idiot!
But then, that's what happens when you smoke too much Republican pot, or snort too much idiot powder!
You know, I've never lost my home, thank god. But if my house had washed away, and my home was getting rebuilt by my home owner's insurance, I think I would have taken the trailer. I wouldnt have wanted to bother my relatives and I would have lived in the trailer temporarily. Bottom line people, is that not all people rely on the government just because. Some unfortunately do need the help. I know I probably would have. Who has the money to pay for a hotel to stay in for weeks? I do however think the government should have regulated the time allowance in these things. Why should the government have regulated time occupancy? Because it would have separated those who really do rely on them and those who can make something of themselves.
Your INSURANCE pays for you to have a place to live and even will buy a trailer.
It is not MY job to PAY for people who chose not to buy insurance, especially when I have to pay the highest rates in the country.
Why aren't my outrageous premiums subsidized by you?
Really? Lose your home and see if your insurance company buys you a trailer. Better yet, see what they pay for housing costs.
As an insurance agent, your loss of use is 10% of your valuation.
So if you have a $150,000 house you can use $15,000 to buy a trailer, which is what I did after Hurricane Andrew.
Anything else that you are clueless on?
Yes, they will provide "temporary housing costs" But you don't get it all upfront. Great if you have the mopey to lay out. Many don't. 15K trailer? Paid more for my boat trailer.
I guess there are those in this country that think everyone who lost their homes in Katrina should have just "sucked it up" or been drug out in the street and shot. Nice to hear this country has turned into the "haves" and the ... well I guess the rest don't matter because the "haves" think the rest are expendable.
I'm with Chris Allen... After reading these posts I'm beginning to feel ashamed that I fought for some of these people's freedoms. The America I fought for is supposed to be for ALL the people, you know with JUSTICE FOR ALL...
Since some of you have already decided you are better than everyone else, go on with your bad selves. I will gladly pay my tax dollars (yes I still work even after I retired from the military) because I chose to help those who need the help.
Those who feel you have the right to judge, things have a way of coming back around. Yeah, there are a few that may take advantage. There are far more that need the help right now. The real whiners are those that aren't willing to accept that fact and pitch in.
Shelly.. I totally agree, now I sincerely hope that you practice what you preach. When was the last time you volunteered in a soup kitchen, to help the homeless, trained with the red cross for disaster support, or donated a significant amount of money to help those down and out?
So people profess their desire to help others in distress, yet do little other than preach, I hope you are not such a person.
lvingbarefoot
your blaming people for what Insurance companies do?
You know what ever customers, does not force others to do things.
that is like saying some could force you to kill some one.
yes they but not really. its just a matter of accepting the thing they are threatening you with.
just like blackmail. you cant be forced to pay it. you chose to pay it. because you are hiding something.
no one forces you to pay for your insurance.
and if you do not like the amount you pay that is the fault of the CEO not other customers.
because you and the CEO are not being forced to do anything.
This is sure to bolster the economy... for the lawyers anyways! Geez what a waste of time & money.
I'd like to fire the government from being our personal shopper please.