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February 5, 2006Mission to Moss PointFEMA trailer: 'It's like a boxed-in cubbyhole'Mother, five children eager to move onPASCAGOULA, Miss. - Tenesha Roberson doesn't know where she'll be living in a year, but she hopes it's not trailer No. 24."It's like a boxed-in cubby hole," the single mother of four said about her temporary home in a travel trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "It's all right for now, but it's not somewhere I want to be forever." Roberson, 22, lived in a Pascagoula apartment building until Hurricane Katrina blew ashore on Aug. 29 and flooded her rented home. She now lives in a 32-foot trailer in a FEMA trailer park behind a Wal-Mart in Pascagoula. Roberson shares the cramped quarters with her 1-year-old twin sons, Kentrell and Terrell Beamer. Her two daughters are temporarily living with their grandmother while Roberson tries to get a larger trailer to accommodate her family. She has a tiny stove, refrigerator, microwave, kitchen sink and a small television to watch from a petite kitchen table. Two small bed areas are nestled in the corners. "This is kind of like a ghost town," she said about the trailer park she moved into a month ago. "Nobody comes out, and the kids have nothing to do or room to play." The "park" consists of more than 100 trailers parked in monotonous rows on a gravel-covered lot. There are no playgrounds or grassy areas in sight. Roberson rode out Katrina at home because she didn't have the means to get out of town. She eventually made it to an American Red Cross shelter in Gulfport, Miss., after waist-high water rendered her apartment inhabitable and destroyed furniture, the children's toys and her car. The family lived with a friend before moving into a hotel for three months while waiting for a FEMA trailer. Roberson's mother, sister and brothers moved to other areas of the country after the storm. "It took me a month and a half to get here," she said. "At first I couldn't get a trailer because I didn't have a site to put it on." Roberson, who recently lost her part-time job because she lacks transportation and child care, heard she'll have the trailer for 18 months. She thinks about moving with her brother to Texas. "Sooner or later I'm going to make that move," she said. "I'll get the courage one day, but I just don't have it yet. For now, this is home."
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