FEMA wants money back..LOL

[Aquawind]

Wow FEMA has serious issues..and certainly NOT Funny...This is amazing...

FEMA letter angers residents

By Joan D. LaGuardia
jlaguardia@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on April 24, 2005

When Doris Colclasure got her letter, she wanted to yell or cry.

She did both as one of 7,300 Florida hurricane victims asked to repay grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I just can't believe that these things can happen," Colclasure said.

The agency notified her that she has 30 days to return most of a grant they gave her after Hurricane Charley destroyed her September Estates mobile home on Pine Island last year. The letter said the grant covers services her insurance should have paid.

"They gave me a grant for $2,800, and then I got a call and a letter asking for $2,000 of it back. I was flabbergasted," she said. "This has been a hassle since Aug. 13."

Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run insurer of last resort, paid her $20,000. It was not enough to clear her lot, replace the mobile home and pay a $10,000 bill for remodeling a kitchen she no longer has.

She had to sell her lot to afford an apartment in Fort Myers, which she found through her church.

"I have to stay here. I have no choice," she said. "I am in a rented apartment. I lost everything."

Of the 7,300 letters, about 22 went to Lee County residents. Elsewhere in Southwest Florida, letters went to about 73 people in DeSoto County, 51 people in Collier County, 37 in Charlotte County, 29 in Hendry and Glades counties.

The agency refused to divulge the total amount it is trying to collect or reveal the names of the recipients or exact number of letters sent to each county. Officials also would not say how many of the errors were because of miscalculations, errors by the agency's inspectors or inaccurate information on the part of applicants.

The News-Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request last week to try to compel the agency to release more information about payback letters.

The agency has said it is trying to be a good steward of taxpayers' money that might have been wrongly paid in the crisis of hurricane recovery.

Colclasure said the agency created the expectation of support by encouraging everyone to register, even if they had insurance.

"I never lied to them about anything. I am paying for their mistake," she said. "They led us to believe they could help us and then they to do something like this."

Once the the agency's application process began, Colclasure said, workers gave inconsistent information, didn't understand their own policies and made promises they couldn't keep.

"I made calls every day between them and my insurance company until I was just flustered," she said.

Other grant recipients echoed those sentiments.

"They were not very knowledgeable as to what their own requirements were," said Kathleen Ford, who lives south of Fort Myers.

Colclasure has the right to appeal, but the agency expects payment in 30 days.

She'll probably appeal and once again take on the burden of the agency's paperwork and follow-up calls.

"Just when you think you are getting settled down and all of this is behind you, they go and pull some kind of crap like this," she said.

— News-Press staff writer Melanie Payne contributed to this article

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 40493/1053


We will discuss this and a few other issues related to Fema, Insurance and Legislation on Talkin Tropics this week..

Paul

[HURAKAN]

FEMA will have to start selling lemonade to get their money back because the money they granted people should have already used to rebuilt their lives back from the rubbles left by the hurricanes and I don't think most people would be able to pay back in less than a year. That's crazy.

[T'Bonz]

Well they have to pay the scammers in Miami SOMEHOW. Seems to me that taking it from those who really DID need the money would fit right in with their thinking.

FEMA sucks.

[Wpwxguy]

Ridiculous, sure some people took advantage of the situation but most really needed the money. Sure, people have most certainly spent the money by now. That is the most ludicrist thing I believe I've ever heard. Fema seems to really be in quite a bit of turmoil. Lets hope things improve, because this season folks may be left waiting for something that will never come. I have respect for fema, because I am an American Red Cross volunteer..........and there are many things that could not take place without FEMA. I'm sure an overhaul is in the works......As was with the Red Cross not too long ago.