Forest River Inc. et al.

A class action lawsuit has been filed alleging the vendors gave Hurricane Katrina victims mobile homes contaminated with harmful levels of formaldehyde. The lawsuit was filed in Baton Rouge Federal Court on behalf of people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that may have been exposed to the carcinogen. Forest River Inc. and other travel trailer vendors provided mobile homes to 120,000 Katrina victims through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Posted by
CINDY MARSHALL
on August 22, 2016

I recently purchased a brand new Forrest River Palomino Puma toy box camper, after sleeping in it one night I was awaking in respiratory destress, my boy friend was having same serious symptoms, eyes burning, nose stuffed,,my throat was closing and his was scratchy,,we had a leave the camper immediatly to get some relief,,,in the morning I discovered we were exposed to high doses of formaldehyde, the AC put into this camper was one that recycles existing air in the camper, it does not get outside fresh air , so high levels of toxic fumes were recycling through the camper where we were sleeping , I spoke with a representative of Forrest River and he pretty much said, sorry,,can't help you.

Posted by
Mississippi
on September 15, 2007

My family and I are still suffering from overexposure to formaldehyde from being in a FEMA trailer. We lost almost everything we had and now we are losing our health. We don't have any official doctor visits because we could not afford to go to regular doctors, instead we went to the free health clinic setup in Bay Saint Louis. From the time we got into the trailer, we all suffered respiratory problems, bronchitis, and my asthma came back. Almost everyone here had something that the doctors labeled Katrina Cough, and was dismissed as the deplorable conditions that existed after the hurricane. We probably don't have any leg to stand on to fight this, but would like to know what can be done. I missed a lot of work due to being sick and suffered physicaly and mentally from it. I would like to get some restitution from these people now and some recourse from the long-term effects years down the road from being exposed to this.

Posted by
Mississippi
on August 22, 2007

Since December of 2005 my son started having breathing problems, constant vomiting and nose bleeding. We had done all possible tests (Gastro. lab test etc.) I had contacted CDC and the Sierra club back in December (a year later) regardding any test to determine the levels of fomarldyhide level in his system but I never reveiced a respond. My son had missed so much school due to this issue, I lost a great job and my transportation. Now we are in a place that we rented but the financial toll that this has taken on us is unreal. We are about to be evicted soon if our financial situation doesn't change.

Posted by
Tennessee
on June 20, 2007

During that time I kept a cough and tingling in my throat that was non-stop.At the time I thought and so did everyone else I knew that had a F.E.M.A. trailor that maybe the outside air was contaminated and I had very.very frequent attacks of the fibromyalgia that I suffer with.Now I honestly believe that it was the trailor that was making me sick.When the trailor was taken back and I moved to Tennessee(because I had no where else to go),it took about three months to I guess detoxify my body and lungs and get whatever was in my system to clear out a little bit,but I STILL suffer with a bad cough and just don't have energy that I had.Also my eyes would tear frequently and felt flu like symptoms constantly.I even asked the people that would come and fix something(F.E.M.A. people)if anyone else they spoke with had any health problems since being in their trailors,and was assured the trailors had been researched and studied for long term usage and were perfectly safe! Iguess now we know the truth.