Fuck FEMA? Yeah, maybe.

Cartooniverse · September 21, 2011, 6:46pm

Love me some FML. Read this one, and had to post in here. Is FEMA really Making recipients of emergency funds after Katrina fully repay them or face debt collection?

Apparently so.

So, fuck you FEMA.

Bricker · September 21, 2011, 7:25pm

From your second link:

Under political pressure to help residents after Katrina, FEMA relaxed its safeguards and paid millions so victims could pay for food, clothing, shelter and medicine and also get started on home repairs.

But that allowed thousands of improper and fraudulent payments. FEMA employees awarded money without interviewing applicants or inspecting property and made errors that ranged from recording incorrect banking information to failing to check whether insurance had already covered damage, according to congressional testimony.

The 154,000 cases under review account for less than 10 percent of the $7 billion that FEMA has given to victims of the 2005 hurricanes through its individual assistance program. The recoupment effort doesn’t apply to other big-dollar disaster aid programs, like Road Home, which was financed by a congressional block grant.

While hundreds have been convicted of hurricane-related fraud, FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said many of the cases under review involve mistakes by agency employees or the recipients themselves. Some payments will be deemed proper, some could be referred for fraud investigations and the rest will get letters telling them to pay back improper payments caused by human error, according to Racusen.

So what am I missing? It seems we’re talking about things like FEMA paying a person who also got an insurance reimbursement. Forgive my lack of comprehension – why shouldn’t FEMA recoup its payment in situations like that?

Cartooniverse · September 21, 2011, 8:16pm

Kind of a simplistic intepretation. No offense intended. You file a claim for the total loss of your home and all contents. Let’s say your 200,000 policy pays you 125,000.

FEMA gives you $ 75,000. You now have enough to rebuild and obtain new appliances and other household necessities that go beyond sheet rock, cement and lumber.

FEMA comes along now and says, fuck ya pally. The insurance company settled. You got your money. Give back what we gave to you.

I do not see the $ 75K from FEMA as insurance fraud or double dipping or anything else. The Insurance industry took such a hit after Katrina that there was fear that they would simply default.

Cite.

Bricker · September 21, 2011, 8:28pm

No offense taken – I was just trying to figure out what was actually happening here. In the situation you describe, I agree completely that FEMA should simply suck it up. But if there are cases where someone lost a $200,000 home, insurance pays them $175K, and FEMA pays them $75K, then I have no heartburn with FEMA asking for $50K back.

No idea if there are any such cases or if they are all along the lines of what you describe… but if they are as you lay out, then I’m right there with you.