$2.6M deal to settle FEMA mobile home claims

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Companies that manufactured mobile homes for FEMA after Hurricane Katrina have agreed to pay $2.6 million to resolve thousands of claims that the temporary shelters exposed Gulf Coast storm victims to potentially dangerous fumes.

Attorneys for plaintiffs and roughly two dozen mobile home makers and their subsidiaries on today asked a federal judge in New Orleans to approve the proposed class-action settlement, which could benefit thousands of families.

The settlement doesn’t involve claims for residents who lived in FEMA travel trailers, which housed the majority of storm victims. Government tests found that travel trailers had significantly higher average formaldehyde levels than mobile homes, which are larger and sturdier.