Congress Grills Former FEMA Director Michael Brown; Trent Lott Battles Insurance Company in Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - Part 2.

(From CNN News)

ROESGEN: Ross came down from D.C. with fellow congressman Dennis Cardoza of California and a posse of staff to show CNN $431 million tax worth of mobile homes sitting unused in an Arkansas cow pasture. What's the hold-up? How does FEMA explain the delays?

Well, first, FEMA said some people who could live in a mobile home don't want one because they're much larger than the travel trailers that can fit in a driveway.

Second, FEMA says some communities lack the infrastructure to support a mobile home, like hookups for water and power. And third, FEMA rules say mobile homes can't be placed in a flood plain. Their sheer size and weight make them a unique problem, never mind that much of the Gulf region is, in fact, a flood plain.

DAVID PASSEY, FEMA: I think we have been surprised with this extraordinary housing mission and the number of obstacles in placing manufactured housing.

ROESGEN: FEMA's rep in the area, David Passey, gave the congressmen a private tour to defend FEMA's operation.

PASSEY: If people want to blame us, then they can blame us. But we need cooperation from -- from local property owners, we need cooperation from local official, and then we have to realize there will be some physical limitations to where we can place emergency housing.

ROESGEN: But after getting a good look at the unoccupied mobile homes in Hope, the congressmen say no excuses, FEMA must get them down to the people who need them.

REP. DENNIS CARDOZA (D), CALIFORNIA: It's outrageous that we're not breaking through those regulations to get the job done five months after the disaster. It's just unacceptable.

ROESGEN (on camera): Congressman, can you do that? Can you break that bureaucratic red tape?

CARDOZA: Well, we're going to try.

ROSS: We're going to try. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: You know, Susan, you see all those trailers, and it is so -- I mean, it's beyond frustrating. It's infuriating.

In terms of the numbers, how many people here are homeless? How many people need homes?

ROESGEN: Well, you know, 217,000 homes were destroyed in Orleans Parish. I think the last figure I saw on people who have requested travel trailers, the smaller ones, was like 65,000. But Anderson, fewer than 3,000 people are actually living in travel trailers in New Orleans Parish. COOPER: And just the size of the problem in St. Bernard Parish alone -- I was just talking to Junior Rodriguez, city council president. He was saying in all of St. Bernard Parish there are only about 15 or 20 homes which are actually inhabitable. I mean, that is just a stunning figure. ROESGEN: And you admire those guys down there because they're gutting their homes, they want to get back in there. All they want is a little bit of help, someplace to stay while they're cleaning out homes like this one.

COOPER: And that's why we're broadcasting from a home like this one tonight, just to give viewers of a sense of what these people are dealing with. And this home is going to have to just be torn down.

Susan, thanks very much.

Susan Roesgen. So, if not in trailers, you might wonder, where exactly are the refugees of Hurricane Katrina living? Tens of thousands have been staying in hotel rooms in more than 40 states. FEMA's been covering the bills but that is about to end. The payments were scheduled to stop this past Tuesday. FEMA extended the deadline another week for most of the evacuees. Most, I should say, but not all.

About 5,000 evacuees failed to get an extension. Now they are living, well, really wherever they can, as you're…