"Fires Provide Chance to Evaluate Changes in Disaster Response Since ’05 Storms"
"In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid out an estimated $1 billion in fraudulent or improper claims, according to Congressional investigators, more than 15 percent of all the aid it distributed to individuals.
There were many legitimate victims who needed help, but mixed in among them was an amazing array of cheats. Frauds included prison inmates receiving relief checks, and thousands of other people who filed duplicate claims or received rental assistance while living in government-paid housing. Checks were even sent out to cover damage to houses that investigators later determined were empty lots or cemeteries.
But they can flat-bed and lose $8 BILLION of BRICKED BILLS in Iraq and that just, oh well.
When it's PEOPLE before PROFITS notice it's a PROBLEM, readers?
Families... are eligible for up to $28,800 in federal grants. The money is to pay for rebuilding costs or temporary living expenses that are not covered by homeowners insurance, which many residents are beginning to find will not be adequate to start over.
The much smaller scale of the disaster in California this week will make FEMA’s efforts to reduce fraud a decidedly easier task than it faced after Hurricane Katrina. As of Friday, California officials said that about 2,000 houses had been destroyed or damaged, compared with the approximately 300,000 affected by the hurricane.
In addition, fire is a standard part of home insurance coverage, unlike flooding, and California requires insurance companies to pay for temporary living expenses.
Given the smaller size of the event and the different role of insurance companies, fire victims are not being provided with upfront cash assistance by FEMA or free hotel rooms by the Red Cross, two offers that attracted some of the biggest swindles in 2005.
Yeah, we gotta use that dough to pay for wars!
Unlike the practice in 2005, FEMA inspectors must now visit homes to confirm the damage before money can be released.
But we'll get you the aid quick!
This has DISASTER written all over it!!!
Despite what Nazi Arnie says!!!
Applications will also no longer be accepted until a Social Security number is provided — and FEMA’s new system will immediately check to see if the number is valid and associated with the person applying, and if it has been used already to apply for aid.
Sort of like being an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, 'eh, Amurkn?!
And as for the Globalist plan of a police state?
Somehow, the fires just worked for them, too!
Sniff-sniff. CUI BONO, readers?
Commercial databases will also be consulted to ensure that an applicant is the owner and occupant of the house. Officials will also be confirming that addresses are really for houses in the disaster zone.
FEMA has no plans to send any travel trailers to California as temporary housing, a response that also created problems after Hurricane Katrina. The Red Cross is still giving out immediate cash assistance in the form of debit cards worth up to $2,000, a spokeswoman for the agency said. But it is trying to compile a list of damaged houses to confirm the legitimacy of applications, and it is checking names in a computer database to make sure victims apply only once, both steps that were generally not taken after Hurricane Katrina.
The $$$$ sure never made it to the black people, wherever it went!
Devorah Goldburg, a Red Cross spokeswoman:
“We owe it to donors and to the real victims that we are helping people who truly need the help and not people who are trying to defraud us.”
So what is a US taxpayer to do, 'eh?
The numbers will grow in coming days.... An early morning trickle at one San Diego relief center Friday later grew into hundreds, with throngs of people carrying tattered sheets of paper and notebooks full of scribbled phone numbers walking among the service tables set up by FEMA, the Red Cross and other government agencies.
Many of the families stood in line together with children in tow, holding Harry Potter books and stuffed animals. Officials in Washington said they were pleased with what they were hearing about the response in California.
Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who oversaw the Senate investigation into waste and abuse after Hurricane Katrina:
“The signs are all encouraging, but this is one of those trust-but-verify situations.”
The Bush Administration is the Evil Empire!!!!!
And Collins said it, not me!!!!!!
