Mobile Homes in Arkansas?; A Daughter's Goodbye
WHITFIELD: Just when the warmest January on record lulls everything into thinking spring can't far away, Old Man Winter throws us a curveball. A powerful Nor'easter is taking aim at eastern seaboard between tonight and tomorrow. Blinding, blowing snow could make travel treacherous, at best. People are bracing for the worst. Monica McNeal is in the weather center. And Monica, I have a feeling this is the big one.</s>MONICA MCNEAL, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this is definitely the biggest one. Maybe the biggest one we'll see all year, Fredricka. As we take a look at the satellite and show you what's going on, you can see this plume of moisture in this area of low pressure. This is the troublemaker. And we've got some very cold air that's finally starting to make its way southward. After the past two months when that cold air has been bottled up across parts of Canada, we're really going to focusing on the winds tonight. That's where the blizzard-like conditions are going to be coming in. As we take a look at our live radar, to show you what's going on. Just south of Philly, right now, the winds are out of the northeast at about 15. And just to the southeast of New York, we're looking at winds right now out of the northeast at about 20 miles an hour. So it's not so bad right now. But those winds will continue to intensify and will continue to increase and we're looking for a lot of snow -- so much snow that it's going to create problems for driving. So if you are one of those folks that you just have to get out and drive, here's just a quick winter tip for you. Make sure you've got a flashlight, extra blankets, make sure you've got canned openers and make sure you've got that cell phone in your car. In the next 24 hours, here's the amount of snowfall that we're expecting to see across the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. Fredricka, take a look at this. In the darker purples, we're looking for possibly up to a foot of snowfall.</s>WHITFIELD: Wow. That is some serious business. All right, thanks so much, Monica. Five months after Hurricane Katrina, one of the biggest headaches for thousands of people is finding a place to live. So we wondered why thousands of FEMA mobile homes are sitting in a lot in Arkansas, hundreds of miles away from people who could use them. CNN Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen took a road trip to find out.</s>SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're looking at emergency housing for victims of Katrina. Row after row of mobile homes -- nearly 11,000. FEMA purchased so many, you can barely squeeze between them. But the problem is, this is Arkansas, not Louisiana. And this empty city of mobile homes is 450 miles away from where it should be. The mayor of Hope, Arkansas, Dennis Ramsey, says FEMA leased this area near the airport in October.</s>DENNIS RAMSEY, MAYOR OF ARKANSAS: They asked what we wanted and we said $25,000 a month. And they came back a couple days later and said that's within FEMA guidelines and the contract was signed.</s>ROESGEN: That's right. FEMA is paying $25,000 a month to let these mobile homes sit here. A good deal for Hope, but no glory for FEMA. Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross.</s>REP. MIKE ROSS (D), ARKANSAS: We want them to come up here and pick these manufactured homes up -- all 11,000 of them and take them to the people who lost their homes and everything they owned in the Gulf Coast well over five months ago. This is five months past due and it's time for FEMA to get moving.</s>ROESGEN: Ross came down from D.C. with fellow Congressman Dennis Cardoza of California and a posse of staff to show CNN $431 million tax dollars worth of mobile homes sitting unused in an Arkansas cow pasture. What's the holdup? How does FEMA explain the delays? Well first, FEMA says some people who could live in a mobile home, don't want one because they're much larger than the travel trailers that can fit in a driveway. Second, FEMA says some communities lack the infrastructure to support a mobile home, like hookups for water and power. And third, FEMA rules say mobile homes can't be placed in a flood plain. Their sheer size and weight make them a unique problem. Never mind that much of the Gulf region is in fact a flood plain.</s>DAVID PASSEY, FEMA: I think we have been surprised with this extraordinary housing mission, at the number of obstacles in placing manufactured housing.</s>ROESGEN: FEMA's rep in the area, David Passey, gave the congressmen a private tour to defend FEMA's operation.</s>PASSEY: If people want to blame us, then they can blame us. But, we need cooperation from local property owners. We need cooperation from local officials. And then we have to realize there will be some physical limitations to where we can place emergency housing.</s>ROESGEN: But after getting a good look at the unoccupied mobile homes in Hope, the congressmen say no excuses. FEMA must get them down to the people who need them.</s>REP. DENNIS CARDOZA (D), CALIFORNIA: It's outrageous that we're not breaking through those regulations to get the job done. Five months after the disaster. It's just unacceptable.</s>ROESGEN: Congressman, can you do that? Can you break that bureaucratic red tape?</s>CARDOZA: We're going to try.</s>ROESGEN: Susan Roesgen, CNN, Hope, Arkansas.</s>WHITFIELD: And now the end of a very painful chapter for one Hurricane Katrina survivor. Denise Herbert is back in New Orleans this weekend for her mother's funeral. She had been missing since the storm. You may remember Herbert from her outburst at a gathering of displaced Louisiana residents in Atlanta last month.</s>DENISE HERBERT, DAUGHTER OF VICTIM: Where is my mother? And I'm angry with the world.</s>WHITFIELD: well, Herbert has been searching for her mother for months without success. Not long after we aired her story, a CNN viewer called to say he helped treat Herbert's mother near the Super Dome. Officials say she died hours later. This week a morgue told Herbert her mother was among their unidentified bodies. A look now at stories making headlines across America. Get out your beads. Mobile, Alabama is celebrating Mardi Gras. Crowds turned out for the city's first Mardi Gras parade last night. There will be lots more parades and events through Fat Tuesday on February 28. And it was supposed to be a news conference it announce his successful crime sweep in Fresno, California; but as a federal prosecutor was speaking, a fight suddenly erupted behind him. One woman rammed her car into another woman's vehicle. Police say it was over a love triangle. Officers pulled the women out of their cars and arrested one of them. The lyric sheet in which John Lennon, with a little help from Paul McCartney, penned the Beatles' classic, "A Day in the Life" is being displayed in San Francisco this weekend. It will be auctioned next month. It's expected to fetch at least $2 million. Coming up, a lot of Americans aren't getting the most from their prescription drugs. Straight ahead, find out some of the biggest problems patients are facing. And this man can't get a job. Find out how one typo has ruined his life.