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The first 11 FEMA trailers for tornado survivors were shipped to Phil Campbell over the weekend and should be ready for occupancy today or Tuesday.

FEMA said these first units were in response to an extreme shortage of available rental housing and apartments in that area. FEMA and the state will respond to other counties where the demand for housing is greater than the supply. But FEMA officials stressed that manufactured housing is provided as the option of last resort only in situations where other forms of temporary housing are not available.

“Once every other housing option is exhausted, we can bring in temporary housing units, such as manufactured housing,” said Federal Coordinating Officer Michael F. Byre.

Mike Stone, a FEMA spokesman, was among those who spent the weekend moving into a new operational headquarters at the former Regions Bank Tower on 20th Street.

Stone said a housing task force, with a variety of federal, state and private sector representatives, is at work assessing where federally supplied temporary housing might be necessary. If enough apartments or homes are available in an area close by, that is preferable. “What you want to do it get them into the ready resources that are available,” Stone said. “Each place is a little different.”

The FEMA mobile homes are available for up to 18 months and are for survivors seeking permanent housing or waiting for extensive repairs to be completed.

Each is equipped with a NOAA weather radio. While there were complaints after Hurricane Katrina that trailers provided to its survivors subjected residents to excessive formaldehyde emission levels, FEMA said in a release Sunday that the formaldehyde emission levels in the trailers are comparable to conventional U.S. homes.

In other tornado-related news:

• FEMA opened four more disaster recovery centers: one at Holt Elementary School in Tuscaloosa County and others in Greene, Choctaw and Madison counties. That brings the total to 22 operating centers where residents are encouraged to go and register damage from the April 27 tornadoes. Registration can also be done online at www.disasterassistance.gov.

• According to the latest count by the National Weather Service, 35 tornadoes hit Alabama on April 27. Offices in Central Alabama and North Alabama are making final assessments of on-the-ground damage.

• According to an Alabama Emergency Management Agency situation report issued Sunday, Alabama Power had restored power to all its customers who can receive it. More than 10,000 customers’ homes were too badly damaged or destroyed to receive power.

The report says 9,693 Tennessee Valley Authority customers and 5,230 customers of the Alabama Rural Electric Association were still without power at the end of Saturday.

• EMA reported that seven shelters, operated by the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross, were still open as of Saturday with 261 occupants.

• U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will meet with Birmingham Mayor William Bell and other officials at 11 a.m. today at the tornado-damaged Timber Ridge Apartments on Cherry Avenue to discuss efforts to house those displaced.

Dovovan’s first stop will be in Tuscaloosa, where he will meet with U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox.

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