Hurricane Katrina has left a tremendous number of people without homes, and the effort to provide them temporary homes is gearing up here in Elkhart County.
The
Federal Emergency Management Association is combing the country for temporary housing, and
Gulf Stream Coach Inc. of Nappanee is the first local company to announce it will boost production to meet the demand. On Tuesday Gulf Stream Coach officials announced they have been in contact with FEMA officials.
According to a press release from Gulf Stream, FEMA is still determining how many housing units will be needed, though the expectations have caused Gulf Stream to begin hiring approximately 200 additional workers in preparation of orders.
“Gulf Stream is concentrating on how quickly we can deliver products to those in need in this time of recovery in the Southeast. Gulf Stream does not anticipate any delay in delivery of our regular shipments to dealer shipments as a result of the storm,” said Steven Lidy, director of marketing.
A survey of a few other local manufacturers of modular homes this morning found no other companies with contracts, but orders are expected once FEMA determines what type of housing it needs and what the engineering specifications will be.
Bruce Savage, a spokesman for the
Manufactured Housing Institute in Arlington, Va., said his agency is working closely with FEMA officials to obtain housing. He indicated FEMA and MHI are currently scouring the country to determine what housing is immediately available on sales lots and at manufacturing plants.
FEMA officials have not yet indicated how many housing units will be needed, according to Savage. Industry sources said FEMA usually is interested in single- and double-wide mobile homes.
The last time FEMA ordered manufactured homes to house storm refugees was last August and September in the wake of the four hurricanes that ravaged Florida. Savage said about 6,000 units were supplied.
Copyright 2005 • The Goshen News