OOPS, FEMA DID IT AGAIN...

Add this to the litany of screw-ups the Federal Emergency Management Agency has made since Katrina...

The Hattiesburg (Miss.) American is reporting today that FEMA apparantly circumvented local 911 requirments in allowing small groups of it's travel trailers to be set up for housing victims of Hurricane Katrina on three areas of private property in rural Forrest County, one of which is located within a flood plain.

County Emergency Management District Executive Director Terry Steed expressed concern about the federal agency's practice, which was discovered when local officials were checking new addresses for inclusion in new 911 maps.

"My concern is we get these little trailer parks set up throughout the county and we don't know where they are...If we have a problem there, a 911 call, we have to go looking for them."

"It's just like everything else I've talked to FEMA about. They have their own way of doing things."

A county ordinance requires an address assigned by the 911 system before electricity or telephone service can be connected, he said. The addresses are used by computerized dispatch systems for police, fire and ambulance services.

The three sites in question are not FEMA-built, but are located on privately owned land.

One of those, located near Petal, is within the Leaf River flood plain, and permits should have been issued by the county. And with the new hurricane season coming up in days, they'd better pray they don't get a second helping of Mother Nature's fury during what is predicted to be another busy period.

Now just think...if they're doing it in Forrest County, Mississippi, you've gotta presume it's been done elsewhere, including in Florida.