Arrests Made in FEMA Miami-Dade Scam Case

[Ed1]

Here are some older news articles


CASHING IN ON DISASTER
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fe ... ws-utility

Hurricane Frances hit South Florida Labor Day weekend, 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County,
but Sun-Sentinel reporters found that the federal government approved $28 million in storm claims.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for new cars,
dental bills and a funeral even though the Medical Examiner recorded no deaths from Frances.

As Hurricane Frances moved ashore over the Treasure Coast, the federal government
declared Miami-Dade County a disaster area eligible for
individual aid even though the storm's outer bands barely had touched the county.

HOMESTEAD -- The manager of a check-cashing store in this southern Miami-Dade city
says he has cashed as many as 30 disaster relief checks
a day for residents since Hurricane Frances hit Florida on Labor Day weekend.
Some residents told the newspaper they saw
neighbors throwing water on their walls and belongings,
hurling rocks into cars, and bending window screens before FEMA inspectors arrived

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fe ... ws-utility

[MSRobi911]

You know reading this makes me sick. After Georges and my house was flooded it took four months to get a trailor out of FEMA so that my family had a place to live. We lived with my mother for 2 and half months in another town and drove back and forth from work, school, dance, band practice, church, etc. We then lived in my house after we had gotten it cleaned up from the flood and the walls cut out 4 ft up from the floor and all the mold and mildew killed until January when they were going to start construction repairs on our house. We had to beg and I mean beg for a trailor to be put in our yard so we could be here for help with construction and not having the travel back and forth. Everything in my house was wet, not only from the gulf waters but from backed up sewage because the citys systems can't handle the water, we didn't get one red cent from FEMA, we had paid dearly for years for flood insurance so - no money - we were lucky we got a 30' travel trailor to live in for four people. It was crowded, but we survived. It would sicken me when I would hear all over town and I will say even at my work some of the people talk about what they had gotten from FEMA and me, who had lost all contents of my house, couldn't get a penny..............something is wrong with the system! Because you know if you have replacement costs in your insurance policy and you pay dearly for that rider, you get your appliances replaced and the building itself replaced, but not the contents. All the contents are depreciated. So after 20+ years of marriage, we started over with nothing! And all of this after huge fights with the insurance adjuster from Arizona who told me to take my computer outside and wash it out with a hose, it would work fine, do I have to say anything else? To finally get insurance money my husband told the agent in Atlanta that he would personally drive up the Atlanta in his Uniform and Patrol Car and hand deliver the package that had been sent to and signed by his company twice, but no less had never made it to his desk..........we got a check two days later, the file suddenly appeared.

Mary

[Lindaloo]

You know reading this makes me sick. After Georges and my house was flooded it took four months to get a trailor out of FEMA so that my family had a place to live. We lived with my mother for 2 and half months in another town and drove back and forth from work, school, dance, band practice, church, etc. We then lived in my house after we had gotten it cleaned up from the flood and the walls cut out 4 ft up from the floor and all the mold and mildew killed until January when they were going to start construction repairs on our house. We had to beg and I mean beg for a trailor to be put in our yard so we could be here for help with construction and not having the travel back and forth. Everything in my house was wet, not only from the gulf waters but from backed up sewage because the citys systems can't handle the water, we didn't get one red cent from FEMA, we had paid dearly for years for flood insurance so - no money - we were lucky we got a 30' travel trailor to live in for four people. It was crowded, but we survived. It would sicken me when I would hear all over town and I will say even at my work some of the people talk about what they had gotten from FEMA and me, who had lost all contents of my house, couldn't get a penny..............something is wrong with the system! Because you know if you have replacement costs in your insurance policy and you pay dearly for that rider, you get your appliances replaced and the building itself replaced, but not the contents. All the contents are depreciated. So after 20+ years of marriage, we started over with nothing! And all of this after huge fights with the insurance adjuster from Arizona who told me to take my computer outside and wash it out with a hose, it would work fine, do I have to say anything else? To finally get insurance money my husband told the agent in Atlanta that he would personally drive up the Atlanta in his Uniform and Patrol Car and hand deliver the package that had been sent to and signed by his company twice, but no less had never made it to his desk..........we got a check two days later, the file suddenly appeared.

Mary

Same thing happened to my cousin who lives a few houses down from where you are Mary. They stayed in their home and when they saw the waters from the Gulf coming at them from the side, they managed to get most of their stuff upstairs and to safety. I know you have one floor so that would not have made a difference. Fema did not help them either. And the people who came to repair their home were crooked. Nothing was done about it.

[MSRobi911]

Linda,

I just get ill when I hear about the people in Moss Point around Rose Drive, I think and the ones in Gulfport in that subdivision that floods when someone tt's in the street cry on TV every time they get flooded and they have no flood insurance and its the cities fault, etc. etc......they know it's gonna flood, get some flood insurance or move! arghhhhhh

People that take and take and take and take and do nothing to better themselves or their situation make me sick.....

sorry for the rant!

Mary

[depotoo]

yep - i join with you in your disgust. what happened down in miami with fema and then the way the insurance co.'s treat you anymore it is sickening. there definately needs to be change. insurance co.'s are a big one for me - they make you scared to use it and then when you finally do - they will do anything to stall paying! grrrrrrr