FEMA signs of corruption?

[Stormtrack03]

I was listening to Neil Bortz (sp?) on the radio this afternoon and he read a very interesting story. As you may know, FEMA is responsible for providing hurricane relief to people affected by natural disasters, such as hurricanes. However, he claims according to some news article that FEMA has provided relief for people NOT affected by hurricanes. Here are a few examples he stated.

1) Hurricane Charley did not affect Miami, Florida, yet people send in claims and still get checks for so called "property loss" due to hurricane.

2) About 130 some people died during Hurricane Charley, yet FEMA has given out so far 300+ checks for funerals of victims of the hurricanes, one claim from a person who had a stroke, another claim of a person who died one week before the hurricanes even hit!.

If anyone can verify any of this info, I surely appreciate it. I find it appauling that FEMA would do such a thing like this and explanations are sure necessary as this is a waste of taxpayers money and people taking advantage of relief when they arent in the relief zone or if it doesnt apply to them.

Comments Welcome.

[Aquawind]

Well were pretty upset down here in Charlie land and were suing to get answers..they are hiding problems if not corruption..


http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 20426/1075

FEMA says aid data protected

By JEFF CULL
JCULL@NEWS-PRESS.COM
Published by news-press.com on April 12, 2005

Federal emergency managers said Monday that the public is not entitled to the names and addresses of hurricane aid recipients because federal law exempts that information from disclosure.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in answer to a lawsuit filed in Fort Myers last month by The News-Press, Pensacola News-Journal and Florida Today — all owned by Gannett Inc. — said that personal information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act. FEMA didn't specify which section of the law forbids releasing the personal data of aid recipients.

The newspapers contend that the information is public under the same federal law and have asked the court to enforce the statute.

"We continue to believe that FEMA should release the records to us so we can let taxpayers know how hurricane relief money was spent," said Cindy McCurry-Ross, managing editor of The News-Press.

"Taxpayers have a right to know."

FEMA's response to the lawsuit is the next step in the legal process that could end up at trial.

"We'll evaluate their reply and hope to be able to resolve the case as soon as possible," said Jim Lake of the Holland & Knight law firm in Tampa, the newspapers' attorney.

FEMA officials won't comment on pending litigation, said James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman in Washington.

Attempting to examine the distribution of aid statewide, The News-Press has filed a number of information requests dating back to October. Those requests sought information on aid to individuals, to governments and the cost of FEMA's administration. FEMA has produced some information on individual assistance but not the names of aid recipients, which would enable scrutiny of relief money.

Because of concerns over FEMA's handling of relief aid, the Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has agreed to investigate. In Miami-Dade County, where residents received nearly $30 million in aid without being hit directly by any of the four storms, 14 people have been accused of bilking FEMA.

Over the next 60 days, lawyers for both sides will prepare a report for U.S. District Court Judge John E. Steele, which will determine what documents and interviews are necessary and the time the case could take.

[chadtm80]

Why not be mad at the chumps that filed for the aid and didnt need the aid?

[Brent]

130 people died in Charley??? In the U.S.???

They must be counting indirect deaths.

[HurricaneBill]

130 people died in Charley??? In the U.S.???

They must be counting indirect deaths.

I think this is how the death tolls were for the U.S.

Charley
Direct deaths: 10
Indirect: 21
Total: 31

Frances
Direct: 6
Indirect: 42
Total: 48

Ivan
Direct: 25
Indirect: 32
Total: 57

Jeanne
Direct: 4
Indirect: 10
Total: 14

[Brent]

130 people died in Charley??? In the U.S.???

They must be counting indirect deaths.

I think this is how the death tolls were for the U.S.

Charley
Direct deaths: 10
Indirect: 21
Total: 31

Frances
Direct: 6
Indirect: 42
Total: 48

Ivan
Direct: 25
Indirect: 32
Total: 57

Jeanne
Direct: 4
Indirect: 10
Total: 14

Oh... they mean TOTAL from all 4. Why wasn't that specified?

I thought something was strange...

[HurricaneBill]

The deadliest U.S. hurricane in recent memory was Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Floyd was directly responsible for 56 deaths in the U.S.

[recmod]

The Orlando Sentinel reported this story earlier this week. The total US death for ALL four storms was 123, yet FEMA DID pay out on more than 300 funerals. The Orlando Sentinel and sister paper from Fort Lauderdale, The Sun Sentinel are sueing to have the records made public to reveal the level of corruption within the FEMA system. There are reports from medical examiners in Florida that FEMA agents contacted them, asking that certain deaths be ruled as storm-related, so that individuals would be eligible for funeral re-imbursement. The newspaper talked about several examples, including a woman who was severely obese and had a long history of heart disease. She suffered congestive heart failure 5 days BEFORE Hurricane Jeanne made landfall, yet the FEMA agent handling her case urged the medical examiner to rule the death as storm-related.

In some instances, the FEMA agents presented a "fill-in-the-blank" form where the medical examiner could falsify details of the person's death in order to make the families eligible for federal funds.

The Sentinel then went on to report that, in the opposite extreme, they had evidence that, in a number of GENUINE storm-related death situations, FEMA made NO pay-outs.

The article was quite interesting and if the newspapers' lawsuits pan out, I am sure we will hear quite a bit more on the corrupt FEMA system and how much money was doled out to individuals that should never have qualified to receive aid.

--Lou

[Brent]

That is just plain ridiclous.

[iceangel]

I didn't notice the date on this, but inside this link, there is a link to the newspaper article that is discussed..Also, at the bottom of the page is a pull down menu with other forums. http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 103x114717

[recmod]

Here's the transcript of the April 10 Orlando Sentinel article regarding FEMA payouts for questionable funeral expenses:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FEMA'S FUNERALS TAB DRAWS CRITICISM

By Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz and John Maines | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted April 10, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Florida officially recorded 123 fatalities from last year's hurricanes, but the federal government has paid funeral expenses for at least 315 deaths, including a stroke victim hospitalized more than a week before the last storm hit and a man who shot himself.

In one case, a Federal Emergency Management Agency worker tried unsuccessfully to persuade a coroner to count among the hurricane casualties a "morbidly obese" heart patient who purportedly was "scared to death."

"If you were to call around to all the medical-examiner offices, people would say, 'No way did we have as many deaths as FEMA is saying,' " said Dr. Stephen Nelson, head of Florida's Medical Examiners Commission. "It's just an incredible number -- a difference of 192. This is the Free Funeral Payment Act."

The discrepancy is even greater because the families of some victims counted by the medical examiner said they received no help from FEMA, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found in its continuing investigation of hurricane aid.

FEMA declined requests from the newspaper for an interview, instead releasing a statement saying: "FEMA is in Florida to help the victims of the worst series of hurricane disasters in over 100 years, including helping those families who have suffered the loss of loved ones to this disaster."

The newspaper's analysis of FEMA claims in Florida shows the government paid $1.27 million for storm-related funerals as of March 10.

The agency refuses to identify recipients of disaster aid, including funeral-related expenses, citing privacy laws. The Sun-Sentinel has filed a federal lawsuit to force release of the names.

Funeral eligibility is "not based exclusively on medical or coroner reports," FEMA's statement said. "FEMA may contact organizations like the Red Cross, hospitals, coroners' offices, police and fire departments, and/or ambulance companies for additional details."

The state's medical examiners said their records are the only comprehensive death toll from the storms.

"We're the keepers of the count," Nelson said.

In Palm Beach County, where FEMA paid 39 funeral claims from hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, the medical examiner recorded a total of eight storm-related deaths, the biggest gap in the state.

"I don't know where [FEMA] came up with those numbers," said Dr. Michael Bell, the county's medical examiner. Applicants are "probably inflating it so they get more money."

In Miami-Dade County, where FEMA's payment of a funeral last fall fueled suspicions of fraud, the agency has since approved four more funerals from Frances. The Labor Day weekend storm made landfall 100 miles to the north, and the county medical examiner recorded no Frances-related deaths.

After learning of the number of funeral payments statewide from the newspaper, Nelson said he will urge the Medical Examiners Commission at its April 27 meeting to press the government for information about the death claims.

"If in fact FEMA has 192 extra cases, and they're basically not providing information to the medical examiners in those counties . . . we as a commission want to know, what are the circumstances that FEMA believes [are] storm-related?" Nelson said. "What kind of proof are they [requiring] to disburse federal funds? Can I just call and say Aunt Myrtle's death was hurricane-related?"

The agency's hurricane payments are already under investigation by a U.S. Senate committee, prompted by legislators' concerns about $31 million given to Miami-Dade residents after Frances. Last month, 14 FEMA aid recipients in the county were arrested on federal fraud charges.

FEMA pays for funerals, burial, cremation and other expenses "related to a death caused by the disaster" for families with no insurance to cover the costs, according to its Web site.

"Disaster-related deaths are not limited to only those deaths that occur during the actual event," FEMA said in its statement to the newspaper. "Someone may die of a heart attack while cleaning up heavy disaster debris, from injuries sustained in a fall while repairing a damaged roof, or trauma suffered from dangers."

But medical examiners use the same criteria when ruling deaths as storm-related, Nelson said.

His Central Florida district, encompassing Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties, got hit by three of the four hurricanes. FEMA paid 23 funeral claims in those counties; the medical examiner certified 19 storm-related deaths.

After the storms, FEMA and American Red Cross representatives "inundated" Nelson's office with requests to link additional deaths to the hurricanes, he said.

"In almost every instance, their phone call or fax was the first we even heard of these deaths," Nelson said. "The only thing they could tell us that would even make this storm-related was maybe they had a heart attack or just happened to die at the time of the storm. . . .We finally told them, 'That sounds a lot like fraud to us.' "

One FEMA worker, Mary Ann Carlisle, stopped by Nelson's office, asking the medical examiner to reconsider his natural-death finding for Annie Brown Nichols and attribute it to the hurricanes.

"The family says the stress of the two storms were too much for her and she was literally 'scared to death,' " an employee of Nelson's wrote in a note to him about Carlisle's Oct. 21 visit. "If you could just write one line . . .FEMA could pay funeral expenses and help this family."

Nichols, 61, of Haines City had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure five years before her death in September, said her daughter, Vera Lorrain Tarver of Auburndale in Polk County. Nichols' death certificate says she died of a heart attack and notes that she was "morbidly obese," Tarver said.

To collect disaster assistance for her mother's funeral, FEMA's Carlisle told her all she needed was "a paper signed by the medical examiner," Tarver said.

Carlisle tried to make it easy for the medical examiner, providing "sample letters" he could use as a guide.

"Mr. James Doe, a patient under my care during Hurricane [blank], was terminally ill when evacuated from his home," said FEMA's sample letter from a doctor. "The stress and trauma of the storm and evacuation may have, in my opinion, hastened his demise. Any help you can give Mrs. James Doe would be greatly appreciated."

Carlisle even included a sample letter for terminally ill hospice patients.

Nelson refused to classify the death as storm-related, writing in his files, "BS!"

FEMA denied the funeral claim, Tarver said.

Reached at her home in Texas on Friday, Carlisle said she didn't "even remember that case" and referred questions to FEMA.

In Avon Park in Highlands County, FEMA paid the funeral expenses of a stroke victim even though the medical examiner ruled it was unrelated to the storms.

Irma Cruz suffered from high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

Eight days before Hurricane Jeanne, Cruz, 62, suffered a stroke, her second in a year, and died at a local hospital the day the storm came ashore.

The native of Puerto Rico spent Frances in a shelter, said her daughter, Wanda Colon. A shelter worker told Colon her mother was "very afraid." "When she heard about Jeanne, she got very scared," Colon said. Colon never thought to ask FEMA for help. But when she filed a damage claim on her home, a government worker asked whether she had funeral expenses.

"I said, 'Well, my mama, she died the same day of the hurricane,' " Colon said. "They say, 'If you bring the paper, FEMA will pay.' "

Cruz's death certificate listed high blood pressure as the cause of death, her daughter said.

Colon obtained a letter from her mother's doctor, who wrote that she "became decompensated in a local shelter" and developed accelerated high blood pressure and a stroke.

FEMA gave Colon about $7,000 for her mother's funeral, she said.

Medical Examiner Nelson still does not consider Cruz's death a result of the hurricane.

"Nowhere in any of the medical records that I have does anyone even raise the issue that her death may/might be related to a hurricane," he said. "She'd already been in the hospital for eight days before the hurricane even made land."

Michael Vierthaler of Madison, Wis., was devastated but not surprised when his brother, Paul, of Innerarity Point, near Pensacola, shot himself in the head Sept. 19, three days after Hurricane Ivan struck.

"He was struggling with mental problems," Michael Vierthaler said. "He was bipolar. And we had done some interventions with his drinking and stuff. I knew eventually this would probably happen."

According to Michael Vierthaler, a portion of a note his brother, 55, left his children, states: "It's not Hurricane Ivan. Those are really good cleansing things. I'm just not happy anymore and am pretty much isolated from the world."

But Buddy NeSmith, an investigator with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, thought the death could be storm-related, referencing another part of the note. "Basically he said that he'd been having problems and that with the damage from the storm he felt like the little people were not, the government wasn't going to help the little people, and it was no use going on," NeSmith told the Sun-Sentinel.

The Medical Examiner's Office in Pensacola, with input from the Sheriff's Office, initially ruled the death as hurricane-related but then reversed that opinion Oct. 6.

In early January, Michael Vierthaler said, he received about $2,300 from FEMA.

The Sun-Sentinel found five families whose relatives were included in the official death count but did not receive FEMA funeral assistance.

One of them was Dutch Cole, whose body was found floating in the Intracoastal Waterway in West Palm Beach after Frances. A resident of a nearby assisted-living facility and blind in one eye, Cole liked to help boaters launch their vessels at the local boat ramp, said daughter Wanda Cole of Marietta, Ga.

FEMA turned down the family's request for help with Cole's funeral, she said.

"They said it was a waiting list," Wanda Cole said. "Due to the fact we was in Georgia, they couldn't help us."

Cole's family borrowed $2,800 to bury him in West Palm Beach.

Researchers Barbara Hijek and William Lucey contributed to this report. Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz and John Maines are reporters for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.