FEMA's folly: 10,000 unused mobile homes for Katrina victims.

It's a trailer park like no other. Row upon row of brand new, empty mobile homes, as far as the eye can see. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mobile home park next to the airport in Hope, Arkansas, features nearly 10,000 fully furnished 2- and 3-bedroom mobile homes--all unoccupied.

Purchased by FEMA a year ago to help shelter the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the mobile homes remain on this huge storage lot unused. The price tag for the mobile homes: $300 million. The cost for a gravel base to put them on: $4 million. The cost for storing the trailers: $25,000 per month.

Why are the homes not being provided to Katrina victims when they are bought and paid for? Snafu upon snafu, typical government folly, and red tape. Seems the FEMA folks didn't consider that their agency's own rules don't allow them to put mobile homes in flood zones, which includes most of the Katrina-hit areas on the Gulf Coast.

However, FEMA is trying to put a happy face on the whole fiasco. The agency reportedly now plans to move thousands of the trailers to various cities across the country so that they will be pre-positioned for future disasters. The costs for the moving and permanent storage: unknown.