Local men win $200 million in FEMA contracts using wool to solve ‘toxic trailer’ problem

William Hamlin and his son David can be affectionately called the high priests of wool.

Ask them how useful the ancient material is, besides as clothing, and you will get an impressive sermon on its scientifically proven benefits.

It is virtually fireproof.

It repels dust mites, fleas and other nasty creatures.

It is all-natural and biodegradable yet can hold up over centuries. Jesus’ robe, after all, is still intact and on display for public viewing.

And the father and son duo, owners of D&D Disaster Services, have made believers out of the federal government. Desperate to find a way to remove dangerous levels of formaldehyde, a common preservative, from trailers used to temporarily house victims of natural disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began looking for creative ways to accomplish that task in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In case you didn’t know, wool is an excellent way to filter the cancer-causing chemical out of the air. D&D Disaster Services has won two separate contracts from FEMA worth around $200 million to build 20,000 emergency trailers over the next five years that are, essentially, formaldehyde-free.

A retired U.S. Army and Marine Corps. Veteran, William Hamlin, 57, said he and his son were in Louisiana after Katrina in 2005 moving hundreds of families out of formaldehyde-infested trailers when inspiration struck. As a 16-year-old, he had worked in a factory that put together scientific specimens for schools across the nation, all of them pickled in formaldehyde.

"After I worked there for about a month as the formaldehyde guy, I started stinking. It was actually in the pores of my skin and people would actually start stepping back from me because I smelled so bad," he said. "I gave them my notice that I was leaving, but this old man that worked there told me if I would go buy some wool clothing to work in it would get rid of the smell. I did … In four days it pulled all that formaldehyde out of my pores and people started getting close to me again. That’s when I realized that wool did pull out formaldehyde fumes.

"When this happened during Hurricane Katrina, this was the first thing I thought of."

So Hamlin started experimenting.

He would take decommissioned trailers, unusable because of their high levels of formaldehyde in the air, and begin applying wool applications inside them. He invested $1,300 in a special formaldehyde tester. Soon, he had figured out how much wool it would take to remove the chemical fumes from the air. About 50 percent of the square footage of the structure.

"I got the levels down to nothing," he said. "Wool removes it effectively and permanently so it won’t come back."

Hamlin said he had overseas experiments done to prove his claims. In the U.S., industrial hygienist and researchers have performed "closed-chamber" testing. All studies point to the same conclusion – wool is the answer.

Hamlin said he’s patented a way to make insulation out of wool to put in the FEMA trailers that effectively reduces formaldehyde levels to well below government guidelines. He said wool has no saturation point, and is also for improving air quality in other areas as well.

Following a test run in Texas where the company set up a small community of their wool-insulated trailers, apparently, FEMA was sold on the idea.

"We’ve proven we can make these trailers safe right off the factory line," said David Hamlin, President of D&D Disaster. "There are so many benefits to this wool, I could talk all day about what it can do, but I want to give the credit where credit is due. My father is the one that figured this out. He did all the legwork."

William Hamlin said he and his son have owned numerous businesses together over the years: restaurants, a catering service, now D&D Disaster. The two formed their company in 1999 and have done many contract jobs setting up and removing emergency trailers for the federal government. David Hamlin said he got his start in the industry shortly after graduating from Whitley County High School in 1993 when he went to work as a subcontractor working for companies in the same field.

Both said this time around, earning lots of money is not their main concern. Instead, William Hamlin said he wants to help families hurt by disaster live in safe housing until they can get back on their feet, and let the general public know about the benefits of a product he says will help them live healthier and more responsibly. He said he was heartbroken by recent testimony before the Centers for Disease Control about how high levels of formaldehyde in FEMA housing had caused birth defects in children and other medical maladies for adults. The preservative is known to cause cancer.

"We are all trying to go green nationwide and this is the greenest product that has ever been made," Hamlin said. "The good Lord made this product for a purpose … We have been so busy as a country trying to find cheaper ways of building things that we have created a chemical environment that is killing us. We’ve got to reverse this and go to greener products."

Four companies, including D&D Disaster, have won contracts to build trailers for FEMA. Three of them are using Hamlin’s proprietary wool insulation under agreements of non-disclosure. The other is using a sealant technology applied inside the trailers. They have their trailers manufactured out of state.

Hamlin said he is trying to market his wool products, more of which he is working on, to retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Though a little more expensive than normal fiberglass or silicone insulation, about $1,000 more for the average home, the benefits outweigh the costs. Wool, he says, keeps your home about six to seven degrees cooler in the summer and around the same amount warmer in the winter than traditional. Plus, it provides a higher R-factor per inch.

"There is no limit to what can happen here with this stuff," William Hamlin said. "I’m proud to say it was all done right here in Corbin by Corbin people."