Mayor Rips Plan to Empty FEMA Trailers

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A plan to move people living in trailers to apartments and hotels because of concerns about formaldehyde fumes will not work and will lead to a ''second great displacement'' of New Orleans residents, the city's mayor said.

There simply isn't enough other housing available in the hurricane-distressed region, Mayor Ray Nagin said in a letter to President Bush released Tuesday.

''Because of the scope of damage to New Orleans' housing stock, much of which is still not recovered, there is insufficient housing here to place all New Orleans citizens needing to be relocated from trailers,'' Nagin wrote.

R. David Paulison, the administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said earlier this month that the agency hopes to get everyone out and into hotels, motels, apartments and other temporary housing by the summer, when the heat and stuffy air could worsen dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes found in the trailers.

James McIntyre, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Wednesday that the mayor's letter was addressed to the president and that his agency had not received an official copy. He said FEMA would work with Nagin's office to address his concerns ''within our legal authorities.''

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month said that formaldehyde fumes from 519 trailers and mobile homes tested in Mississippi and Louisiana were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

Formaldehyde is a preservative commonly used in construction materials; it can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer.

FEMA, which has provided trailers and rental assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims since the 2005 storms, has been offering lists of rental options to those living in trailers; months ago, the agency announced plans to close group sites in the state by June 1.

Nagin wrote that while he agrees the situation is urgent, moving families to apartments or hotels isn't an appropriate solution. The plan, he said, ''will lead only to a second great displacement, as current trailer residents will be moved from New Orleans to apartments and hotels elsewhere in the Gulf Coast region.''

Programs meant to bring back housing haven't gained traction yet, Nagin said.

There are 8,515 travel trailers in the city, most in front of storm-damaged houses, he said, citing FEMA figures. Another 2,366 house former residents outside of the city, he said, estimating that based on the city's average home occupancy rate, that 25,000 New Orleanians currently live in trailers and could be relocated.

Nagin said FEMA must do a better job of providing health information to those in trailers, telling the president he wants free checkups for current and former trailer residents; free treatment of any medical conditions ''generated or exacerbated'' by exposure to formaldehyde; and ''guaranteed access to comprehensive, state-of-the-art medical care for any future formaldehyde-related medical conditions.''

He said he also wants the government to make available ''gap financing'' to help homeowners living in trailers make outstanding repairs to their houses

Barnes & Noble chairman plans to build houses for storm victims

Leonard Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, announced Tuesday that his family's charitable foundation plans to build 20 houses in Gentilly for homeowners who have not managed to rebuild since Katrina, the first phase of what will ultimately be a $20 million effort to bring ailing residents back home.

The 20 houses, which will incorporate environmentally sustainable features, will be built on an empty lot on St. Bernard Avenue between Mandolin Street and Owens Boulevard.

"Despite the enormity of Katrina's fury, a point was proved once again that no storm or floor or disaster can destroy this city because its people are too resilient...to be washed away," Riggio said in a morning news conference.

The Riggio Foundation will provide a new house at no cost to owners who are willing to swap out their flooded, uninhabitable home. The foundation will select residents to participate in its program, called Project Home Again, through a lottery.

Homeowners must apply for the lottery by April 15. Applications are available at Project Home Again's offices at 4299 St. Bernard Ave. Residents can also call (866) 550-4742 for an application or download the forms at www.projecthomeagain.net.

Creole Craftsman Helps Rebuild N.O.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Smiling with satisfaction, Earl Barthe pushes back his wide-brimmed hat and runs his eyes over the intricate plaster trim of the Luling Mansion.

He's sure his family helped form the room's original decorations, elaborate patterns on the ceilings and even likenesses of the first owner's daughter, who died of yellow fever.

Today, Barthe (pronounced bar-THAY) is busy restoring the 165-year-old building.

''You look at this kind of work and you're looking at the pride people took in what they did,'' said Barthe, a fifth-generation master plasterer whose family's work can be found in New Orleans' historic homes and churches and even the Louisiana Superdome.

But in a city known for its arts traditions, Barthe is one of the few remaining craftsmen in what once was a flourishing trade.

His face lined from days in the sun, Barthe, who won't say how old he is but acknowledges working the family business for 70 years, wears the white shirt and pants traditional to the trade. He insists his workers carry on the custom, too.

The Barthe family settled in New Orleans in the early 1800s. The business was established by his great-great-grandfather, a master plasterer from Nice, France, who married a woman from Haiti.

The family was known in the term of the time as ''free people of color.'' These days Barthe refers to his family as Creoles, but most of all, he calls them plasterers.

''My father was a plasterer, his father was a plasterer, his uncles and everybody else were plasterers,'' he said. ''The Barthe children knew they had to be plasterers. Daddy didn't want me to be a doctor, a lawyer or an Indian chief.''

In fine hotels, the old stores along Canal Street, the St. Charles Avenue mansions and the cemeteries' tombs, you'll likely see the work of Barthe and his family.

''Every job is a hard job because of the time and care you have to take with it, the attention you have to pay,'' Barthe said. ''And it's hard work climbing that scaffolding, hauling around the plaster. It's the kind of work that makes you know you've done a full day when you stop.''

Barthe said about a dozen families were engaged in the business in its heyday.

''It was all men, and the one who had the most sons got the most respect,'' Barthe said. ''And those boys knew they better live up to what their fathers expected. If you did something wrong it reflected on the family. Nobody wanted that.''

To become a plasterer requires a three- to four-year apprenticeship, learning the tools, and how to mix plaster and prepare walls. The task can be daunting in old New Orleans homes; often walls reach up to 14-foot ceilings.

Patience and attention to detail are the keys to turning out the ornate medallions and trim a master plasterer can produce, or even a smooth wall of plaster. A worker will go over the surface repeatedly, blending the plaster, polishing and blending until the surface is seamless.

It's not a job that young people now flock to. The last official apprenticeship class was in 1980, according to Terry Barthe, Earl's daughter, who now runs the business.

''Americans don't want to work hard,'' Terry Barthe said. ''We don't want to sweat anymore. We don't want to 'earn' a living, and that's why it's a dying art.''

Part of that is due to the use of drywall, which is cheaper than plaster and easier to learn to install.

''Don't even say that word to me, it's a dirty word,'' Earl Barthe said. ''Just look at what happened with Hurricane Katrina. If you had sheet rock you had to rip it out and throw it away. If you had plaster you just washed down and were ready to go.''

In his own house, Barthe said, floodwaters were more than 3 feet deep, and although he had to replace floors, roofs and windows, his plaster walls stood strong.

''When you have plaster you have a building that will be there for a while,'' he said. ''You can count on your grandchildren living there after you.''

Terry Barthe, 50, decided to get into the family business to pay off college loans, then got hooked.

''To take nothing and make something, the greatest analogy is God forming the earth out of a clump of clay,'' she said. ''When I look at a handful of lime and plaster, it's nothing, it's just dust; but I can make anything out of it.''

Will Anderson, 26, started working for Barthe while still in school. ''I love to do the work, the craftsmanship of it,'' he said.

Earl Barthe's skills were featured in a New Orleans Museum of Art exhibition titled ''Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts in New Orleans'' and in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's ''Masters of the Building Arts'' program in 2001.

He has been inducted into the Louisiana AFL-CIO Labor Hall of Fame, and in 2005 received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.

Passing that heritage along by training apprentices is his goal now.

''I'd like to see another generation do the kind of work their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will one day appreciate,'' Barthe said.

FEMA Trailers to Be Tested by Request

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Occupants of FEMA trailers placed in disaster areas may now get their units tested for formaldehyde contamination if they file a request.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that for the first time it will open up the testing program to hurricane evacuees living in thousands of federally supplied trailers and mobile homes along the Gulf Coast, and to anyone using similar FEMA-supplied trailers in other states that have been affected by floods, tornadoes and other disasters.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this month that tests on a sample of 519 trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi detected formaldehyde at levels that averaged about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

Formaldehyde is a preservative also commonly used in construction materials; it can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer. Critics had argued that FEMA should have reacted sooner to concerns that formaldehyde is to blame for ailments reported by trailer occupants.

In a news release issued Friday, FEMA said testing could begin as early as next week and would begin with residents of the Gulf Coast who have already requested tests.

About 200 trailers and mobile homes would be tested each week, FEMA said. The contract to do the testing went to Bureau Veritas, which also did the recent testing of the 519 units, according to FEMA.

Bureau Veritas, with operations in 140 countries, specializes in quality assurance, health, safety, and environmental services. The company says it helps clients ''comply with standards and regulations relating to quality, health and safety, environment and social responsibility.''

Time runs short for Jeff trailer dwellers

After next week, Jefferson Parish will turn its caseload of residents who still have FEMA trailers over to attorneys who will start filing lawsuits to extract people from their emergency housing units.

The move marks perhaps the final major push in the parish's yearlong effort to eradicate trailers from front lawns and driveways. Calling for a post-hurricane return to normalcy, parish officials last year reactivated codes that prohibit trailers as permanent housing in residential neighborhoods. The restrictions include trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, privately owned trailers and storage units.

March 1 is the deadline for residents to remove trailers from unincorporated areas of Jefferson before parish attorneys begin filing suits in 24th Judicial District Court. The parish will ask judges for orders compelling homeowners who are still trailer dwellers to comply with the zoning rules. Judges also could consider the arguments from residents that their houses remain unlivable with storm damage as they wait on contractors, insurance or money from the state's Road Home program.

Previously, residents had been able to win extensions from parish-hired inspectors and parish hearing officers as long as they could demonstrate that the people living in a trailer were the same residents of the household as before Hurricane Katrina and that they faced legitimate hardships in fixing their houses.

"This will allow a judge to make that determination," said Matthew Friedman, an assistant parish attorney handling trailer cases, about the new parish strategy of filing lawsuits. "It takes it away from the parish attorneys, the Parish Council."

Homeowners who have asked FEMA to take their trailers can avoid a parish lawsuit by filing an affidavit with parish attorneys indicating they have contacted the federal agency but are waiting for a crew to arrive. The affidavit also authorizes parish officials to call FEMA on behalf of homeowners and press for trailers to be hauled away.

"The affidavit is probably the new twist on this," said Bert Smith, deputy chief administrative officer for Parish President Aaron Broussard. "It puts the brakes on the lawsuit the parish attorneys would be filing."

Jefferson officials estimate about 1,500 trailers remain in residential neighborhoods in unincorporated parts of the parish, a count that has steadily dropped from more than 17,000 in the months after the 2005 hurricanes.

Officials have been urging people who still need housing assistance to contact FEMA about a rental assistance program now being run in conjunction with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The FEMA telephone number is (888) 294-2822.

To get a copy of the affidavit indicating that a homeowner has asked FEMA to remove a trailer, residents can visit www.jeffparish.net and click on the news release about the March 1 deadline. Residents also can pick up copies of the affidavit at the Joseph S. Yenni Building, 1221 Elmwood Park Blvd. in Elmwood, or the General Government Building, Suite 5200, at 200 Derbigny St. in Gretna.