CORDOVA -- Danny Banks lives in a gray and green tent on the spot where his single-wide trailer sat before it was destroyed in the April 27 tornado that pummeled this Walker County community.

Banks, 50, plans to continue living in the tent in his Disney Lake community because he says he has no alternatives.

A city ordinance bans single-wide trailers such as the ones supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Banks said he has no plans to purchase a double-wide mobile home, which is permitted in certain parts of the city.

"I don't do double-wides," Banks said. "I'm waiting on a trailer, and I'm not going to move."

Cordova Mayor Jack Scott said he knows tornado survivors need a place to live, but the city is enforcing the zoning ordinance that he said was passed in 1957. He acknowledged that the ordinance was not enforced in the past.

Scott said the ordinance's purpose is to help develop property in Cordova.

"We're trying to better Cordova," he said. "We're trying to clean up Cordova and keep it clean. We're trying to keep the property values up. We're trying to get it to where people will want to build homes on these vacant lots."

Scott said the ordinance permits double-wides in four locations of the city and allows modular homes to be placed anywhere.

The city has worked out other options for the survivors, he said, but he declined Monday to discuss them.

Scott said he expects several Cordova residents to show up at a council meeting tonight at 6 in protest of the ordinance.

"It's not Jack Scott doing this," he said. "It's the city ordinance."

Jim Foster, a FEMA spokesman, said the federal agency offers only single-wide trailers and abides by state and local laws.

"State and local law take precedence," he said.

Foster said Monday he was unaware of any other Alabama community blocking FEMA trailers.

The ordinance has saddened many residents who are working to help tornado survivors.

Kathy Watts, who is running a distribution site in Cordova, said she understands the ordinance, but believes the strict enforcement is wrong right now when people need shelter.

"This is not the time for that battle because we have homeless people in the city of Cordova who can't do better than a FEMA trailer or a single-wide," she said.

Geneva Stough's rental house was destroyed in the tornado. She is living with a neighbor whose full name she didn't know until after the storm.

Stough said she is grateful to be living with her neighbor, but a FEMA trailer would help her.

"I understand the rules," she said. "I just hate this right now. This is a hard time for us now."

Stough and Banks resent the notion that people living in trailers do not care about their properties.

"We don't want tacky, either," Stough said.



Call to Missouri

In other storm-related news, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said he called Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday morning and offered his condolences on the destruction and deaths caused when a tornado hit Joplin, Mo., on Sunday. "I told him I understood exactly what he was going through," Bentley said.

FEMA representatives said disaster relief efforts under way in Missouri have not affected assistance being offered in Alabama.

Denise Everhart, a FEMA spokeswoman, said FEMA officials in the Missouri region will respond there.

"The people there are in our hearts and prayers, but it will not diminish operations here in Alabama at all."

In fact, FEMA announced it has opened two new disaster recovery centers in Jefferson and Walker counties. The new centers are at the Jefferson County satellite courthouse, 1485 Forestdale Road, Birmingham, and Bevill State Community College, 101 State Street in Sumiton in Walker County.

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