FEMA: Tranquility Lakes trailer village to open soon for people in need

After months of waiting, we can now see trailers meant for people who lost their homes to Hurricane Ian.

Previously, WINK News reported that a FEMA village was coming to Tranquility Lakes on Burnt Store Road. Now, we are getting a look at the property where it’s set up.

Between 30 and 40 trailers arrive at the staging area each day. The 10-acre site will be used as a preparation center where workers can inspect each one before shipping them off to families in need.

“They’re getting two to three dozen, sometimes a day, into this staging area,” said Keith Denning, deputy federal coordinating officer for FEMA.

Denning said it took about two weeks to build the site. It’ll help FEMA accelerate its distribution efforts.

“Right now, we have 130 units like this that are on private sites around Southwest Florida, and 39 that are in that are in commercial parks,” Denning said.

Denning expects that number to grow.

One spot, in particular, will be the Tranquility Lakes community on Burnt Store Road. The temporary site is already being set up and is expected to open in the next few weeks.

“We have approximately 50 there at the moment, and we are bringing them in every day,” said Denning.

Cape Coral City Councilman Tom Hayden said he’s excited to see a new option for people to turn to.

“It’s needed in our community because we really don’t have an area to place these trailers. And, you know, we we know, we still face a lot of hardship with people that don’t have homes and may not have homes for a while,” said Hayden.

105 FEMA trailers will soon arrive in Cape Coral. 50 of them are already parked inside the Tranquility Lakes.

“It’s basically an agreement between FEMA and the private owner. As these over 100 trailers start coming into that site to at least people now know that they have a place they can go,” said Hayden.

While the city’s not in charge of who gets a FEMA trailer, Hayden knows there are lots of people dealing with many hardships. “I’m going to hope it goes smoothly. And, you know, and they can get people moved in and get them in a better situation.”

Denning said that’s the goal. He predicted families would move into these mobile units in the next few weeks. “They’ve already been deemed eligible through our program, and they receive a pre-placement interview from one of our specialists.”

Dozens of FEMA trailers arrive every day in Charlotte County, which will eventually go to not just families and needy folks across Southwest Florida. “We can ship them in very quickly, check them out and then get them out to where they need to be used,” said Denning.

FEMA said while the agency has already selected the families that will move into the Tranquility Lakes community, if you’re in the cape and need assistance, you can still reach out for help.

The agency does not have an exact timeline for how long the Tranquility Lakes site will remain open. The goal, for now, is to stay here as long as people are in need.