Page 2 - the rest of the story
My last week's blog about FEMA brought some unexpected reaction from the agency itself, so I took a further look into some of the remarks which I reported at that time.
In particular, a casual remark I reported on from an Advance Board of Alderman meeting sparked the agency to investigate the source and set the record straight.
One of the aldermen had repeated something a friend had told him - that one of the victims of the flooding had said all he received from FEMA was "$90.00 and a bottle of bleach." (Actually, he also mentioned a mop, but I didn't remember that...)
As is often the case, there is more to the story than meets the eye... The $90.00, the mop, and the bleach were actually given to the man by the Red Cross - not FEMA. This individual lived nowhere near a river but had 18 inches of water in a location which had never flooded before. FEMA did give him approximately $100, but, since he had insurance, he didn't qualify for more.
Jack Heesch, FEMA Public Relations Director for this area, gave me some recent figures, which I think are relevant to this discussion: As of yesterday, April 28, 2008, FEMA had registered 4,833 people in a 35-county area and dispersed $10.200 million in flood relief funds. In Stoddard County, 167 people are registered with FEMA. The Advance Recovery Center, which closed Saturday, registered 158 individuals from the surrounding area.
Though not all the claims have been processed, approximately 73 have received the maximum grants from FEMA - $28,000.
Jack Heesch reports that some homes are experiencing "repetitive damage," so the owners need to call FEMA and report this, as they may qualify for more assistance.
Heesch also emphasized that SBA (the Small Business Administration) is set up to handle the long-term recovery process with low interest loans - as I originally reported on my first FEMA blog. From what I understand, the Jackson and Piedmont recovery sites have been switched over to SBA for this purpose.
Here is the contact information for FEMA:
If you were affected by the floods -- even if the mess is all cleaned up -- call FEMA's toll-free registration line, 800-621-3362 (TTY: 800-462-7585), from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, or register online at www.fema.gov. You may be eligible for help.
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I'm totally neutral in this issue...I really don't have an opinion, one way or another. I'm just reporting what I heard, and I got myself in trouble for repeating what the alderman said, so I wanted to make sure I printed a clarification.
This is all tax money, so, as U.S. taxpayers, we're footing the bill for this disaster, and I think FEMA wants to keep an eye on our money and not give it out wastefully.
I really think that this whole issue shows just how careful the agency wants to be, after the disasterous press they got during the Katrina catastrophe.
Of course, they do collect our taxes for this very purpose...
Some people really know how to work the system -- and the rest of us pay for it.