FEMA Is Faulted on Aid After Hurricane Ike

[babylonsister]

Deja Vu...

FEMA Is Faulted on Aid After Hurricane Ike


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 8, 2009


HOUSTON (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied nearly 650,000 applications for housing aid since Hurricane Ike hit southeastern Texas, finding that nearly 90 percent of claimants were ineligible for aid.


Pool photo by Smiley N. Pool
A house in Gilchrist, Tex., after Hurricane Ike. Nearly 650,000 claims for federal housing aid are said to have been denied.

Those rejected and their lawyers say the inspectors are unqualified or poorly trained and the inspection system is flawed in ways that withhold help from deserving people. The agency says the numbers reflect a widespread misunderstanding of its mission.

The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that the agency had received more than 730,000 applications for money to help with home repairs, mobile homes or other housing services needed after the hurricane caused widespread damage in September. So far, the agency has paid out about $371 million to 82,000 applicants, declaring almost 650,000 ineligible for aid.

A lawyer for a homeowner challenging his assistance from the agency as insufficient told the newspaper that the gap between applicants and paid claims is caused in part by unqualified or poorly trained FEMA inspectors.

The lawyer, Mark J. Grandich, said that it seemed that the agency had “hired a bunch of people, basically just anybody, and put them on the street after one day of training.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/09hurricane.html?_r=1&ref=us

[sonias]

1. Heck of a job FEMA - not!

The lawyer, Mark J. Grandich, said that it seemed that the agency had "hired a bunch of people, basically just anybody, and put them on the street after one day of training."

Bingo - that's exactly the way "drown the government in a bathtub" group think works. Either they privatize the government service and it ends up costing at least twice as much as it did when government employees did the job. Or they go the lowest cost route which means untrained workers that are hired on the spot practically. The American people should wake up from believing this bullshit from the Norquist kool-aid drinkers. If you starve government to the point of drowning it - real people can die. And one of those real people needing services might just be you.

Where is the Texas republican party? Oh hardly a peep when bush was in office but expect them to yell loudly now since it's Obama's watch now. Watch them blame it all on the Obama administration.


Sonia

[Why Syzygy]

2. On a related note...

If anyone is counting, the migration from the coast has been around at least 70 years. My granddad moved his family from Port Arthur in about 1940 due to the storms. I wonder what the land mass looked like at that time.

It's also clear that one should rely on FEMA as only an adjunct to one's own survival methods, if at all. Lots of books on the subject.