NAPPANEE -- As search and rescue efforts continue among rising waters in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, one local recreational vehicle manufacturer already is building temporary housing for the storm's numerous victims.
Gulf Stream Coach Inc. was contacted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday and was producing modified versions of its travel trailers to be used as temporary housing units by Wednesday, according to Steven Lidy, director of marketing at Gulf Stream.
While not as luxurious as the Nappanee company's retail models, the travel trailers come equipped with air conditioning, electricity and water hookups, sleeping and cooking facilities and bathrooms.
"They are the essentials that those people need," Lidy said. "They don't have all the frills that retail models have (but they are) very nice units."
Coachmen Industries Inc. also has talked with FEMA and will "be doing some work to help" the victims of Katrina, said Jeff Tryka, director of investor relations at the Elkhart RV maker.
We are "very willing to help out FEMA and the folks in the Gulf region as best we can," Tryka said.
After four hurricanes slammed into Florida during 2004, temporary housing units were manufactured by Gulf Stream and Coachmen as well as by other Elkhart County RV companies including Forest River, Keystone RV and Jayco.
Calls to Forest River, Jayco and Keystone's parent company, Thor, were not returned Wednesday.
A report recently released by FEMA summarized recovery efforts in Florida after the brutal 2004 hurricane season. The report stated that assistance from federal and state agencies had topped $5.6 billion and that currently "8,232 FEMA housing units are occupied -- down from the high of more than 16,000 -- as families continue to move out of FEMA mobile-home group sites...."
Lidy could not quantify how many units FEMA had ordered or how many units Gulf Stream was producing each day but he did maintain the company will produce as many travel trailers as the federal agency needs.
"The entire industry has the same stance on that," he said. "We all step up to the plate and produce whatever is needed."
Tryka concurred. "We view this as doing what we can to help out the victims down there."
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