At U.S. Marine base, families plead for housing help after Florence
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Reuters) - Two weeks after Hurricane Florence devastated parts of the U.S. Southeast with raging waters and dangerous winds, some military families at the region's largest Marine Corps base say they are still residing in unlivable conditions and awaiting help from the base’s private housing manager.
Some, like Jennifer Maher, said they feel unsafe in their Camp Lejeune homes but were told they will not be moved because assessment crews determined their houses are habitable.
That did not work for Maher, pregnant in her third trimester and living with her husband and 2-year-old son. When she returned home last Friday, she opened the door to the stench of mold, she said while showing the wreckage to a visiting reporter. Then she saw the ceiling had collapsed in their bedroom and garage.
“I’m pregnant and I can smell the mold,” said Maher, whose husband is a Navy corpsman stationed at Lejeune. “There’s no way I could bring a newborn home and let her breathe this in.”
Though an assessment crew noted the collapsed ceilings and standing water, Maher said, the housing manager told the family they would not be relocated. After she threatened to complain to the Inspector General’s office on base, she said her family was given temporary lodging. She is considering breaking her lease, since she does not know if her home will be repaired before she is moved out of the temporary place.
“I understand they have a lot to take care of,” Maher said of the housing manager. “But it’s hard when your housing company says, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, go find a shelter.’”
Other families shared similar stories this week with Reuters, as the Marine Corps and the base’s private housing companies perform triage from the fallout from Florence. A reporter visited the base, speaking with three residents in their damaged homes and interviewing two others, one off base and one by phone.
This year, Reuters has been examining safety and environmental hazards faced by U.S. military families on military bases, including cases of childhood lead poisoning. At Lejeune, some families described encountering troubles that reporters observed at other bases: lags in maintenance responses by private contractors that stir worries over health.
Most of Camp Lejeune’s housing is run by Atlantic Marine Corps Communities, or AMCC, a partnership between Australia-based LendLease Group , Boston-based WinnCompanies and the U.S. Navy. All the homes profiled in this story are managed by AMCC.
“Residents have multiple options to raise concerns to AMCC management and military leadership if they have persistent issues that are not addressed,” AMCC said on Saturday, in a statement provided through Marine Corps public affairs specialist Victoria Long.
According to Long, the Marine Corps Inspector General office for the region has received one complaint about housing issues related to Florence, but discovered AMCC had resolved the issue when it followed up.
'ASKING FOR PATIENCE'
Of the more than 4,600 homes the company operates at Camp Lejeune and nearby New River Air Station, 1,200 have undergone assessments. The inspections found 82 homes uninhabitable and requiring relocation, said 2nd Lieutenant Andrew Martino, a communications officer at Camp Lejeune. Another 267 suffered sustained damage but were habitable. A further 560 homes are operated by a different manager, Lincoln Military Housing, which has not reported serious damage, he said.
“Assessments are ongoing," Martino said. “We’re just asking for patience around the base.”
AMCC said it has finished exterior assessments of all neighborhoods and expects to complete initial visual assessments of all home interiors by Oct. 5. It estimates 70 percent of its North Carolina inventory has experienced damage, and that repairs will take several weeks to many months.
Around 75 percent of families in the most severely damaged homes have been relocated, it said.
On its website, AMCC acknowledges many of its neighborhoods suffered widespread damage. The company is allowing families to break leases without penalty through Oct. 13, but is not guaranteeing alternative housing on base unless homes are deemed uninhabitable, its website says.
“One of our top priorities is currently assessing the damage that has occurred as a result of Hurricane Florence,” the website says. “Damages will be prioritized for safety, with the most severe and pressing cases being addressed first.”
Sadly, it's now common for our service men and women to be treated as second-class citizens by their own government. The outsourcing of critical military services to for-profit characters like AMCC guarantees that profit- not safety- are guiding the damage assessments. Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows mold is a serious health risk for humans, and especially for pregnant women and infants. A professional inspector not working for AMCC would have already condemned all these homes. It's incredible this sort of thing happens in spite of massively bloated Pentagon budgets.
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