Another Hurricane Katrina anniversary is upon us. To this day many people are still living in camper trailers that were provided by FEMA or Federal Emergency Management. They are known as FEMA trailers, Katrina campers, killer campers, death mobiles, and toxic trailers among other unflattering names.

I want to remind people that there are thousands of these out there. They were manufactured in such a rush and so cheaply that they had dangerous levels of formaldehyde in them. The usual supply chains were stressed by the volume so the factories started buying products from other countries and regulated sources. Many people, including children, became very sick while living in them. Some people even died in them after surviving the original disaster.

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Many of these trailers have never even been lived in. Some have had flood damage increasing the health hazards that already existed in these sick campers from the beginning.

In the nature of good old American capitalism, there are people out there that would love to sell you one of these campers, possibly disguised as something else. It is up to you to know what you are buying.

Please take extra care when looking at any trailer made in 2005. Yes, the worst of the gases would have dissipated into the air but the levels are still higher than normal all these years later. The crappy foreign glues they used were so deadly to begin with, they are still above recommended exposure levels.

So you save a few bucks. You give those savings to your insurance. They take your money, deny your claim and then you’ll be both sick and out of money while some suit is richer for it. That is what is happening to many people that are still in the wake of disasters like Katrina. They got taken by their home insurance company. They got taken by a private company under government contract. They got taken by their health insurance company. That’s the nature of business these days and it’s up to you to avoid it at the start.

Many companies and factories produced these trailers in Indiana. Many employees of those companies have become very sick. Note that the regular branded retail products from these companies are fine. The retail products are were made with more care and expense than the rushed and cheap bare bones FEMA trailers. It’s up to you to decide who took the money and ran and who is being responsible.

According to documents shown on a HDNet news report by Dan Rather, companies that were sued in the aftermath of these FEMA trailers include the following companies:

Gulfstream
Fleetwood
Starcraft
Pilgrim
Monaco
KZRV