Report: FEMA overpaid at least $174 million to Katrina victims

[DoYouEverWonder]

Oct 20, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued overpayments of at least $174 million in its rush to distribute emergency payments to Hurricane Katrina victims, a newspaper reported Thursday.

In three Louisiana parishes FEMA issued checks worth at least $70 million, representing more payments than there were households. In 36 parishes and counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, FEMA awarded $102 million to at least 51,000 more applicants than local officials said were displaced by the storm, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

FEMA intended the aid for displaced families, one payment per household, the newspaper said.

The alleged overpayments occurred while the federal agency was eliminating red tape to dispense $2,000 checks and debit cards to help victims pay for living expenses after they were forced from their homes by the Aug. 29 storm and rising floodwaters.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_FEMA_PAYMENTS_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[villager]

1. Those damn victims. Good thing the corporations were honest.

Like Halliburton, and such.

[stillcool]

3. Yeah...right....

like FEMA's books resemble reality! Where's Arthur Anderson?

[harlinnchi]

4. That might be 'cause the overpayment was measured in units that begin...

...with 'm', not 'b'. If this is not just some trial balloon to see if the administration could blame the hurricane's victims for the large-scale theft that is occurring as we write I'll be very surprised.

If it is, we'll soon see fraud and overpayment stories that use units of currency that at least begin with 'b', if not 't'.

[MichiganVote]

2. "Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job!"

[mom cat]

5. Bet that most of that money never got to the poor!

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[cdsilv]

9. Uhhhh...while I feel very bad about N'awlins....

...and I think this is total bushll, how about the folks in MS who have yet to get anything from FEMA?

I heard maher say that they've retired the 'Hurricane' drink made famous in N'awlins. They have a new one, its called the 'FEMA', really strong stuff - hits you after a week.

I was talking w/a guy today who claims that the Bushes' are family friends - Poppy broke off a couple of campaign stops to attend his grandmother's funeral. He (born in '78), seems to think that W has the 'mental credentials' for the president job (I let this pass - this kid has a MASTERS in IT), but he did acknowledge that W 'just ain't right', and that in his words 'W wants to project the image of Reagan, 'a cowboy, at high noon', I countered that W was more of a 'frat boy' and he wholeheartedly agreed. Not wanting to ruin a buzz, I said that the American people are VERY tolerant, but what we really do not like is being lied to. He agreed, saying that no-one (at least in his generation), really cared if Clinton got a blow-job - but they really resented being lied to about it. He agreed that the 'cover-up' and lying about everything would be W's downfall. He expressed support for the war, saying that 'we're there now, we can't just leave'. I told him that attitude was what caused the Vietnam debacle.

I neglected to ask him why, if he supported the war, was he not over there 'fighting the good fight', as we both had to go get on our convention buses.

All-in-all, an interesting conversation.

[mom cat]

7. Check this out for FEMA overpayments in Florida:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-femacoverage,0,3866065.storygallery?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[AlCzervik]

8. How is it possible that any checks from this government cleared?

oh nevermind, i'm sure we borrowed the fund from China.

[fooj]

10. Oh sure...just like the 11 billion "missing" in Iraq.

:grr: They're fucking crooks. Bottom line.

peace.

[Miss Chybil]

11. Amazing how they found this out so fast when it took so long to discover

the fact $9 billion was missing in Iraq.