First Applicant To Move In Buys Her Home
Release Date: November 16, 2000
Release Number: R3-00-32
COURTLAND, Va. -- Ms. Virginia Armstrong, the first applicant to move into a temporary home provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd, will make it her permanent home.
A year ago, FEMA's Manufactured Housing Program purchased 50 manufactured (mobile) homes and 42 travel trailers to house families displaced by Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. Ms. Armstrong, on Nov. 17, 1999, was the first to lease one of the manufactured homes in a temporary park set up in the Agribusiness Park, 28230 Oakcroft Drive, Courtland.
Robert J. Gunter, Federal Coordinating Officer for the disaster recovery in Virginia, said that the terms of the sales agreement require the buyer to have a site for the manufactured home and to occupy it as a permanent residence.
Thirty-nine families, all from Franklin and Southampton County, still occupy manufactured homes in the temporary park. Some are in the process of purchasing their homes from FEMA, but others as yet have no provision for permanent homes, according to FEMA Region III Recovery Programs Branch Chief Jack Schuback. Federal, state, municipal and volunteer-organization officials continue to work on housing alternatives for these families.
Another 10 families live in travel trailers in the temporary park and nine more families are using FEMA travel trailers on their own property while their homes are being repaired. Of those in travel trailers, all but two families expect to have their damaged dwellings repaired by the end of December so they can return to their homes.
FEMA can provide up to 18 months of temporary housing for qualified disaster victims. Since the disaster declaration in September 1999, FEMA has housed 51 families in manufactured homes and 46 families in travel trailers.
Last Modified: Friday, 14-Nov-2003 09:38:35