MEMPHIS, TN-- Hundreds of Memphis mobile homes are unlivable, destroyed in the flood. Now they're a serious health risk because of mold growing inside.
They need to be disposed of properly, and Shelby County Emergency Management says the owners are responsible for getting rid of the damaged property. While EMA gets the word out, nothing is being done about the mess.
"We've got 350 mobile homes that have for all practical purposes been destroyed," says Bob Nations, director of Memphis/Shelby County EMA.
In Frayser, hundreds of the flood damaged trailers he's talking about sit empty. Whole neighborhoods demolished by the water, their homeowners long gone. The EMA is spreading the word: clean up this mess.
"The disposal of the mobile homes that's the responsibility of the mobile homeowner," Nations says.
With little salvageable, homeowners aren't sticking around. When we called Memphis Mobile City's office to ask about the cleanup process, they told us to talk with EMA. Right now no work is being done, and there's a lot to do.
"It's just a mess, It's just a huge mess," says Tim Netter, a utility worker replacing damaged lines in the abandoned parks.
Netter and other workers say only curious sightseers are showing up at the trailer parks.
"A guy came back here not long ago, he was asking do all of these got to come down? All these with tags on them, I told him yeah, so he just turned around and went right on back out. Other than that there really haven't been that many people off in here," says James Berks, another utility worker.
So the mobile homes sit empty, infested with mold, a health hazard. Outside and inside -- every part of them needs to be trashed.
"Even your washers, dryers, refrigerators, stoves: those appliances," reminds Nations.
And then there's the problem with where all the trash has to be put before it will be picked up.
Some people have started piling trash up at the end of their driveways, but Nations say in mobile home parks all that trash has to be put in a designated spot before sanitation workers will collect it. So it too is starting to build up.
