FEMA payouts

[Aquawind]

FEMA payouts unfair, some say

Luxury-item coverage defended by agency

By Melanie Payne
mpayne@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on May 31, 2005

As people across Florida struggled to mend their lives after the hurricanes of 2004, emergency managers gave away more than $20 million to replace TV sets, lawn mowers, computers, toys, strollers, sewing machines, washers, dryers and microwaves.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency promised to get people back to a safe, sanitary and functional condition. But an analysis by The News-Press shows that the feds approved money for items many people could live without, including more than 17,000 TV sets.

In an e-mail response, FEMA defended the decision to provide money to replace the damaged items.

"FEMA, in coordination with the state, determines which items are eligible," wrote James McIntyre, a spokesman for FEMA. "The items are considered necessary for the recovery of the household."

FEMA, whose stated mission is to help disaster victims meet "necessary expenses and serious needs," even

distributed money for these items in south Miami-Dade County neighborhoods that missed the most damaging winds.

The agency awarded $720,403 to 228 people in Miami-Dade for items such as air conditioners, freezers, sewing machines, microwaves, toys, computers and televisions without verifying whether the losses really occurred or were storm-related, according to an audit report released May 18.

Some Miami-Dade neighborhoods got more money per household than parts of storm-ravaged Charlotte and Lee counties although official numbers put the top sustained wind speed in southern Miami-Dade at 41 mph during Hurricane Frances.

During Hurricane Charley, winds reached 133 mph in Lee County and 137 mph in Charlotte County.

Residents became savvy about what they could get from FEMA, said one former government disaster housing inspector.

"The word was spread up and down the coast on how to get a TV, radio or generator," said Jim Dodd, who was hired as a FEMA inspector shortly after Hurricane Charley and worked on the east side of the state.

Most people who filed applications deserved money, Dodd said, but after the third hurricane the application process seemed almost scripted for some who asked for help.

"When you start hearing what it takes to qualify, someone was telling them what to say to the FEMA guy," said Dodd, who owns a Fort Myers housing inspection business.

People were supposed to use the money to buy items FEMA designated in their award, but some put it to what they considered a better use.

With their Hurricane Charley-battered Cape Coral condo deemed uninhabitable, Janet and Chuck Schroeder received a $2,062 check from FEMA. It was supposed to cover the rent and other expenses of moving into temporary lodging.

"But we had to stay here," Janet Schroeder, 68, said. "We're on Social Security ... We didn't have the money to move out."

Instead the couple used the FEMA grant to make a mortgage payment. The couple's homeowner's insurance was inadequate to pay for all the damage they had to fix — or to replace things ruined when the rain poured into the home — but FEMA didn't replace those things either.

"FEMA did not help the really, really needy people," Schroeder said. The couple — he's 63 and she's 68 — appealed to FEMA, but their request for more money was turned down.

"They sent us a letter (that) said you didn't have enough damage. It put us in a financial bind for everything."

Hurricane Charley decimated the 1972 mobile home of retired North Fort Myers resident Roger Ebel, 65.

Ebel, who lives in a camper and makes less than $15,000 a year, received $4,200 from FEMA for repairs to the mobile home and $3,300 for other expenses such as replacing his appliances and TV that were lost when the walls blew off his house.

He intends to use the money not for a television but to repair his home, put up a new carport and pay the storage fee on items he could salvage from the wreckage.

"Eventually, I would have bought my own TV," he said.

He suspects FEMA people understood his financial need but because he was insured they were unable to help him with money for repairs and instead gave him money for things like replacing his television.

So far, Florida hurricane victims have received $620 million to replace personal property, for medical assistance and funeral expenses and another $556 million for lodging expenses, rental assistance and home repairs.

The agency won't say how much of the $1.2 billion it doled out was used on items such as lawn mowers, strollers, toys, sewing machines and TV sets. The News-Press analysis shows that FEMA did give at least:

• $6,049,610 for 17,128 TV sets

• $4,166,250 for 7,575 washers

• $2,560,090 for 6,110 dryers

n$1,595,376 for 8,593 microwaves

• $1,009,265 for 2,839 lawn mowers

• $962,400 for 802 computers

• $167,775 for 4,474 toys, and

• $109,580 for 314 sewing machines.

FEMA director Michael Brown defended the payments.

"Congress and the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 said that that was an eligible expense and that we could pay for them," Brown said.

While federal tax money pays for most of the recovery, those personal property items have cost Florida's coffers at least $150 million. The state's contract with FEMA calls for it to pay 25 percent of those costs.

The agency audits a small percentage of recipients and in at least 7,300 cases asked for money back.

Some less-than-deserving people may misuse FEMA money, but it's worth it to avoid further hassles for truly needy victims, said Dennis Mileti, professor emeritus from the University of Colorado and former director of the Natural Hazard Center in Boulder.

"If you take Florida, which is filled with older, well-educated people, you have the right ingredients for people cutting an angle," Mileti said. "But my point of view is: Let them have it."

It would cost more money than could be saved to cut out the small amount of abuse that occurs, he said, and becoming overly strict with disaster aid "would leave a bad taste in the mouth of victims."

The payments rankle others such as James Nagel of Merritt Island, who said people were encouraged to file for FEMA aid but wound up with nothing.

"It was advertised everywhere. Radio. TV. The newspaper. Even insurance companies," Nagel said. "I felt kind of shorted."

— Staff writers Joan D. LaGuardia and Grant Boxleitner contributed to this report.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 10424/1075


Whata partial list of payouts....

Paul

[Steve H.]

They (FEMA) need to go after those in Miami-Dade county who received those unwarranted funds. Remember, the maximum wind gusts in that area didn't exceed 36 mph in Miami Folks to the north are still trying to get their lives back together, and had the leftovers that the FEMA thieves who know how to work the system didn't get. It just ain't fair. But whoever said it would be, I guess