COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. -- When will trailers supplied by FEMA get to Collier County? The director of the county's Emergency Management Division said FEMA first wants to make sure that Tropical Storm Nate doesn't interfere with plans to stage them at the Immokalee Airport this weekend.
"Hopefully by Saturday, there will be some resources here for the staging, as well as setting those trailers up to meet the applicants' needs," Summers said.
But a FEMA spokesman said trailers as temporary housing are considered to be a last resort, and that FEMA works with applicants for disaster aid on finding available rental units or hotels first.
The trailers wouldn't necessarily be set up at the applicant's property. They may be set up at an existing mobile home park, outside of a flood zone.
Jodie Tobin's home was one of over 200 in the Naples Estates mobile home park, at Rattlesnake Hammock Road and County Barn Road in Collier County, that were either destroyed or made unlivable by Hurricane Irma.
"You never think you'll be in this spot," Tobin said. "It's horrible."
She and her dog Mandy have been sleeping in her car, parked next to her condemned home.
"I use my neighbor's bathrooms," Tobin said. "They let me charge my phones, and another neighbor lets me do my laundry."
Tobin has been on the phone with FEMA, hoping to get a trailer to live in until she finds something more permanent, but doesn't know if she will get one.
"I know I need it," she said. "There's got to be other people like me."
Whether it's a trailer or some other housing, Tobin just hopes it happens soon.
"I know there are other disasters and now everybody's moved on to those," Tobin said. "But it's still horrible here. You know, I'm living out of my car."
