Finally, FEMA homes are heading out of Cobleskill to those left homeless by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.
As of Friday, said FEMA spokesman Peter Lembessis, 51 people in Schoharie County and another 178 across the state have been identified as eligible for the temporary homes.
Six of the homes have been delivered locally and have families living in them; work orders have been issued for another 11.
"Work orders mean all the details-permits, water, sewer and electrical hookups-have been taken care of," Mr. Lembessis explained.
"It's finally coming together. Now it should be a matter of weeks before they're all delivered, no longer months."
The first of the temporary homes-FEMA doesn't like to call them trailers-arrived in Cobleskill the first of October.
The biggest obstacle to placing them has been FEMA's unwillingness to place they in 100-year flood zones.
Efforts to waive that restriction were unsuccessful.
Now, Mr. Lembessis said, he expects 50 homes a day to be moving out of the Guilford Mills staging site.
Most of the homes will be placed in existing mobile parks, he said, though a few will be going to private sites.
FEMA has no plans to "gang" the trailers together in a single site, he said, something county officials had been pushing as a way to speed up the process.
"Our goal is to keep people near their families," Mr. Lembessis said, another reason the trailers are a "last resort" behind finding families nearby apartments to rent.
"Housing units sometimes take people away from their neighbors and support system," he said. "To different schools...it makes everything so much harder for them."
The deadline to apply for FEMA help for both Irene and Lee is December 15; to register, call 1 (800) 621-3362. Online, go to DisasterAssistance.gov.
The trailers can be kept for 18 months, though the clock on that began ticking when the disaster was declared in September.
Anyone with more than $10,000 in damage from either storm is eligible for housing assistance; recipients don't pay rent but are responsible for utilities.
The homes have been winterized; the Times-Journal was unable to confirm a report that FEMA planned to switch a trailer already delivered to a family in Schoharie-and occupied-because it hadn't been winterized.
Judy Warner, head of Emergency Management, said the wait has been frustrating, but she agrees with FEMA's insistence that the trailers not be placed in the flood zone.
"We're not hearing the stories anymore of people sleeping in their cars," she added. "We're all doing everything we can to make sure people don't fall through the cracks..."
At a meeting with code enforcement officers held a coupe of weeks after the storm, there was some talk that municipalities might want to ease planning and zoning requirements to make placing the trailers-and rebuilding-easier.
Shane Nickle, senior planner for the county, said he doesn't know of any communities that have done that-likely, he said, because of FEMA's 100-year flood requirement.