Portable storage units adapted to provide emergency shelter

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- PODS founder Pete Warhurst recalls hearing stories about desperate hurricane survivors taking up temporary residence in the company's storage containers after monster storms in 2004 and 2005.

That planted the seed for the Clearwater-based company's latest prototype: An air-conditioned PODS unit outfitted with beds, a refrigerator, stove, bathroom, generator and other comforts designed to shelter up to five people for months.

The 8-by-16-foot unit, rolled out several weeks ago, looks from the outside like one of the company's portable storage boxes, except for the people-sized door.

And like a storage unit, it's delivered on the back of a truck and can be put down almost anywhere. The inside, though, has the feel of a decent-sized motor home.

"In about 10 minutes time, we can have a family with a place to sleep for the night," said Warhurst, a former firefighter who started PODS -- Portable On Demand Storage -- in 1998 and turned it into a market leader.

The PODS emergency housing unit, outfitted by Warsaw, Ind.-based motor home manufacturer R-Vision, is only a prototype. But the PODS people are talking to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Florida emergency management officials about ordering them to have on hand.

PODS would then store them and deploy them as needed from their many warehouses.

"They are suitable to sustain people. They are not elaborate where (residents) are not going to be motivated to get out of them," Warhurst said, referring to FEMA's troubles getting storm refugees to move out of temporary trailer parks.

Roy Dunn, disaster housing chief for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said public money isn't available to buy a bunch of the PODS shelters right away, but the state is looking for ways to incorporate them into its disaster plans.

Depending on extras, the shelter units cost between $10,000 and $13,000 to build.

Dunn said he is urging local emergency managers and social service agencies to look at them, too.

"I think it's a great tool to put in the tool box," he said. "At the end of the day, it's a product that needs to be seriously looked at as a resource."