Pieces of Flair

Update on Hurricane relief

In July 2003, Economic Inquiry published an article by Thomas Garrett and Russell Sobel stating:

"We find that presidential and congressional influences affect the rate of disaster declaration and the allocation of FEMA disaster expenditures across states. States politically important to the president have a higher rate of disaster declaration by the president, and disaster expenditures are higher in states having congressional representation on FEMA oversight committees. Election year impacts are also found. Our models predict that nearly half of all disaster relief is motivated politically rather than by need. The findings reject a purely altruistic model of FEMA assistance and question the relative effectiveness of government versus private disaster relief."

Last August questions regarding the real purpose of Hurricane disaster aid were raised on PoF and later here. Now, USA Today reports that FEMA is coming under fire for its questional approach to assistance:

"The federal government gave $31 million in disaster relief for Hurricane Frances to 12,000 Florida residents who were not directly hit by the hurricane last fall and may not have deserved any money, government auditors say in a report to be released Wednesday.

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) didn't adequately inspect homes and used a system of aid payments "susceptible to potential fraud, waste and abuse," says the report by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.

"The findings are the latest to point at questionable disaster relief payments made by FEMA. Audits dating back at least a decade have shown similar problems elsewhere.

"The latest report said that FEMA paid $15,742 for three funerals without any proof that the deaths were disaster-related. The agency also paid $2.7 million to repair 2,180 homes even though inspectors didn't have proper documentation, and residents were reimbursed $192,592 for chainsaws, generators and other unverified expenses, the report said."