by the Way . . .

Well, those travel trailers seemed like a great idea. As reported here February 15, FEMA had 100,000 of those travel trailers and was ordering more. The more expensive mobile homes were sinking into the mud and couldn't be released, since it is illegal to place them in a "flood prone area". One big flood shouldn't make an area "prone", but you know how cautious government is.

The travel trailers, however, are exempt from those rules, as well as zoning and building codes because they are mobile. That is the "travel" part. So we figured when the evacuation sounds people could just hitch up. And even better, when you run out of gas along the freeway, you have a place to sleep.

There was no way anyone could have anticipated that the trailers would tip over if the wind got to 60 mph. Mark Smith, spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security, thinks a properly anchored one won't tip over until winds reach 75 mph "or so", which is the threshold for evacuation anyway. With so many trailers along the coast, he expects to call for evacuations more frequently this year, that is, if they can get announcement ironed out. "The key", he said, "is going to be trying to figure out how to word it so people don't get a false sense of security, but people don't panic, either."

Who knew trailers were dangerous in severe thunderstorms, tornados, or hurricanes? Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he too is worried, not only about the falling over, but about wind blown projectiles, as people perversely tended to put their trailers on their own property, next to their damaged houses and piles of debris. Who knew? Full disclosure: I have warned Maureen Dowd about her calling Chertoff and crew "chuckleheads", in violation of my patent on the Chuckles curve (see post of December 18).

Worse, now officials want to discourage people from trying to evacuate towing their trailers. Jesse St Amant, emergency preparedness director for Plaquemines Parish warned: "I imagine there are going to be some people who consider it, but I hope they think better of it. Trying to haul a travel trailer during an evacuation would be cumbersome and dangerous." I really don't see why, as long as you were careful not to drive over 59 miles per hour (you take the anchors off when towing). And that was no problem in the last evacuation.

Even the head chucklehead (damn, now she's got me doing it) says he has spoken with officials of FEMA to make sure the federal agencies are ready to help in an evacuation. He says "We are going to make sure we have those capabilities in place." If that doesn't mean hauling trailers, what does?