FEMA says it will end $2k debit card program- two days after it started!

[flpoljunkie]

FEMA Says It Will End Debit Card Plan

By HOPE YEN
The Associated Press

Friday, September 9, 2005; 6:27 PM


WASHINGTON -- The nation's relief agency said Friday it will discontinue its program to distribute debit cards worth up to $2,000 to hurricane victims, two days after hastily announcing the novel plan to provide quick relief.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will scrap the program once officials finish distributing cards this weekend at shelters in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, where many of the evacuees were moved. No cards will be issued to victims in other states.

Hurricane victims at other locations will have to apply for expedited aid through the agency's traditional route -filling out information on FEMA's Web site to receive direct bank deposits, FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule said.

"We tried it as an innovative way to get aid to evacuee populations in Texas. We decided it would be more expeditious with direct deposits," she said, citing the large staffing operation that would be required to replicate the Texas operation in other states.

© 2005 The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090901724_pf.html

________________

Are these FEMA folks this clueless? Folks below poverty, 30% of those living in New Orleans, don't got no checking accounts!

[AzDar]

1. Just a cluster f*&k from top to bottom...Who's in charge here?? n/t

[tridim]

2. Wait a sec, the cards were just for evacuees in Texas?

What the hell?

[acmejack]

3. I wonder what percentage of the evacuees even have an account

Really hard to direct deposit without one.

[Angry Girl]

4. This is totally deliberate.

OF COURSE the feds know that a huge proportion of poor people dont have checking accounts! What a piece of work these people are. And we let these people in our government....

[idiosyncratic]

5. Many of these people probably don't have bank accounts.

And how can they apply online . . . ? :nuke:

Are they going to bring in enough computers so people can apply without having to wait in line for 12 hours?

Will they have someone there to fill out the forms for people who have never used a computer?

[Old and In the Way]

6. No one ever thought that there could be 30,000 people homeless

without ID. Seems to be the thread that runs through this administration. "No one every thought"

[benfranklin1776]

7. Oh God how incredibly pathetic these Bush appointed morons are.

They set new record lows for idiocy each and every day. This is simply UNBELIEVABLE! But it looks like this photo op administration strikes again! They announce this 2,000 dollar debit card idea ostensibly to get immediate help to the people who have been displaced and have nothing and then suddenly and abruptly, once it has gotten media play to show that they were supposedly doing something, suddenly cut it off, without explanation. Once more the news is announced on Friday afternoon as per their SOP. Now those in other states who are in just as dire a condition are told they will have to go through "traditional channels" and just have to wait patiently and if they don't have a checking or savings account, well tough, let them eat cake say the Antoinette Bush's! Whatever the reason this level of bungling is simply breathtaking and utterly despicable by any measure. People are once more left without help because of the inexcusable incompetent screwup cronies Bush appointed to head this agency. His fault, absolutely, its his pathetic poeple he appointed and he is the head of the whole rotten cesspool. Another stellar example of his "Leadership" :puke:

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Wouldn't be anything to do with the recent

disclosures concerning the waivers, and the talk of legal actions, would it?