Life in a FEMA Trailer Comes to Birmingham; Local Activists Urge Senator Shelby to Speed Gulf Coast Recovery

As part of a national campaign to raise public awareness about Gulf Coast recovery efforts, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer is touring Alabama on Thursday and Friday, May 1-2, 2008, to help survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita rebuild their lives and livelihoods. The KatrinaRitaVille Express will be visiting Birmingham to rally support among Alabama residents and send a message to U.S. Senator Richard Shelby about the urgency of passing the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act.

"More than 50,000 Mississippi and Louisiana families, survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, still live in toxic trailers like the one I am pulling," said Derrick Evans, of Gulfport, Miss., who is organizing and directing the KRV Express traveling advocacy campaign. The visit and rally in Birmingham was arranged by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an international human rights organization based in Cambridge, Mass. UUSC has organized more than 1,000 volunteers to help rebuild homes on the Gulf Coast.

Note to media: The FEMA trailer will be parked at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham on Thursday, May 1, Thursday afternoon and evening, and near Senator Shelby's office Friday morning, May 2. It will be open to the media for tours, photos, video, and interviews with Derrick Evans, Mary Fontenot of All Congregations Together (ACT), New Orleans, Zack Carter of Alabama Arise, as well as other Alabama residents who have traveled to New Orleans and Mississippi to help in the rebuilding and recovery. Interviews can be arranged prior to or after the special events on Thursday, May 1, or the lobby visit to Senator Shelby's district office on Friday, May 2. Contact Dick Campbell at 617-301-4370; 781-337-6463, dcampbell@uusc.org, or Bev Hoffman, 404-556-8171, bevhoffmanjr@aol.com.

The schedule of events and activities includes:

Thursday, May 1

Noon, Greater Birmingham Ministries, 12th Avenue and 23rd Street North, Birmingham. Presentations by Mary Fontenot, executive director of All Congregations Together, New Orleans; Zack Carter, organizer, Alabama Arise; and representatives of UUSC and Greater Birmingham Ministries.

5 p.m., Open house, KatrinaRitaVille Express, a FEMA trailer, UU Church of Birmingham, 4300 Hampton Heights Drive, Birmingham. Thousands of people are still living in these toxic trailers, recently classified by the Centers for Disease Control as unsafe for habitation. For more information about the KatrinaRitaVille Express, please visit www.krvexpress.org.

7 p.m., Gulf Coast Update -The Struggle Continues, music and presentations, UU Church of Birmingham, 4300 Hampton Heights Drive, Birmingham. Darryl Hunt, president, UU Church of Birmingham, will introduce speakers who include Mary Fontenot, executive director, ACT; Zack Carter, Alabama Arise; and Bev Hoffman, UUSC. Katrina survivors living in the Birmingham area will also be present. Singer Gigi Hines, who lost her home in Mississippi to the hurricanes, will perform.

Friday, May 2

9 a.m. - noon, Federal Building, 5th Avenue North and 18th Street, Birmingham. The KRV Express will be open for tours while Gulf Coast hurricane survivors and Birmingham-area activists organize and visit Senator Shelby's district office to press for immediate passage of the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act. The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives but has been stalled for several months in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, of which Senator Shelby is the ranking member.

The KatrinaRitaVille Express Tour is traveling across the country to raise public awareness of the tremendous need that exists to help survivors of the Gulf Coast hurricanes return to their homes and regain their lives and livelihoods. Most recently, the FEMA trailer visited Hartford, Conn., including the district office of U.S. Senator Chris Dodd and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

"The FEMA tour sadly reaffirms the total failure of government agencies at all levels to respond to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents as they try to rebuild their homes and their lives," said UUSC President Charlie Clements. "We can celebrate the accomplishments of many local grassroots organizations and thousands of volunteers from across the country who continue to work tirelessly to help New Orleans residents return to their homes. Now is the time for the federal government, specifically Congress and the president, to step to the plate and begin to do their part in helping those who need help the most."

For more information on the Katrina RitaVille Express tour, please visit www.krvexpress.org.