National News

They are white boxes in neat rows with gravel drives on a cleared patch of land that initially offered solace to people left homeless by Katrina.

But Obie Atwell, 43, misses the neighborhood in Pascagoula where he rented a three-bedroom house with plenty of room for when his kids came to visit.

“It’s a different life here,” said Atwell, who has a travel trailer at the Martin Bluff Road FEMA park in Gautier, Miss. “They mow the grass. Somebody mows it, because I don’t.”

Someone also pays for the utilities, park residents said. But there is no mail delivery and they carry their own garbage to centrally located Dumpsters.

Atwell said he’s grateful for the help, but he doesn’t know anyone at the park even after months of living within a few feet of them.

“I stay to myself,” he said.

The park on Martin Bluff Road is considered one of the better ones, with few calls to Gautier police.

FEMA trailers take up most of the privately owned RV park, called Santa Maria. The security is paid for by the landowner and the park has a good reputation among FEMA park dwellers. People ask to be transferred to it.

Four off-duty police officers moonlight as guards and they take security seriously, following rules set out by the park owners. Children aren’t allowed to gather in the street, dogs must be leashed, only two cars per lot and no drinking outside the federally-owned travel trailers.

“You can do what you want in that federal property,” said Carlton Logan, security guard, “but when you come out, you’re ours.”