Distillations magazine

Unexpected Stories from Science’s Past
June 3, 2016 Environment

Where Have All the Trailers Gone?

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced more than a million people in 2005, many of whom turned to trailers provided by FEMA. But it soon became apparent that these trailers were making people sick.

view of the side of a white trailer
About SUPPORT OUR WORK

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore into the Gulf Coast in 2005, they displaced more than a million residents. For many of these people, trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became their homes. But many of the new occupants soon became sick.

The culprit was formaldehyde, which emanated from the hastily assembled, substandard materials used to make the temporary homes. The toxic FEMA trailers became an embarrassment to the agency and, in the eyes of many, emblematic of the government’s mismanaged response to the disaster.

In 2015 Distillations followed researcher and medical anthropologist Nicholas Shapiro as he looked for the remaining FEMA trailers. His search took him to the oil fields of North Dakota, where a different kind of housing crisis was taking place.

More from our magazine

Man in hardhat and work clothes turning valve on a machine
DISTILLATIONS MAGAZINE

Water and Power

Could a century-old aqueduct point the way to Los Angeles’s clean energy future?

Black and white photo of a man looking through a large viewfinder
DISTILLATIONS MAGAZINE

We’re Going to Work Miracles

The failed promises of Project Plowshare.

Color photo of a cow standing in a sunny Alpine pasture
DISTILLATIONS MAGAZINE

A Tragedy with No End

Why does Garrett Hardin’s pessimistic fable haunt our collective imagination?

    Republish

    Copy the above HTML to republish this content. We have formatted the material to follow our guidelines, which include our credit requirements. Please review our full list of guidelines for more information. By republishing this content, you agree to our republication requirements.