Oregon Public Broadcasting

Senator Ron Wyden is trying to buy victims of the 2007 Vernonia flood a little more time. A handful of families are still living in FEMA housing units, and April Baer reports, they're staring down a deadline.

FEMA says the families must be out of the housing units by early June.

The federal government places an eighteen-month limit on the use of FEMA units. But, these housing units didn't arrive in Vernonia until four months after the flood.

Senator Wyden says he wants FEMA to consider giving the dozen-plus families another four months to find permanent homes.

Ron Wyden  "It just seemed to me that given all the hurt folks in Vernonia have seen, this deadline is awfully arbitrary. It's a very strong community, but living with the fear of being evicted, I just think is too much."

FEMA Deputy Administrator Dennis Hunsinger hasn't yet responded to Wyden's request.

More than 200 homes were destroyed in the 2007 flooding, and the town lost ten percent of its population in the course of resettlement.