"Shocking" discovery: FEMA's incompetence led to widespread fraud

A U.S. Senate committee found widespread fraud and waste in the federal government's payout of $31 million to Miami-Dade County residents for Hurricane Frances aid.
...
"The public is perfectly willing and indeed eager to help the victims of natural disasters rebuild their lives and their communities," said Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "But the public is not willing to see patterns of abuse, wasteful spending, outright fraud, erroneous payments."

The hearing capped a four-month investigation by the committee, prompted by a series of reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The newspaper found that FEMA handed out millions in Miami-Dade neighborhoods with no reported damage, paid for funerals unrelated to the hurricanes and relied on contracted inspectors with criminal records to verify damages.

The committee's investigation confirmed the findings and uncovered more problems, such as criminals hired as inspectors before completion of background checks and inspectors submitting claims without visiting applicants' homes.
...
"Because procedures used in Miami-Dade were also used throughout Florida and the nation, a shadow has been cast on the appropriateness of FEMA's awards," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the committee's ranking Democrat. "The hurricane season will soon be upon us again. We must make changes in FEMA."
...
Senators grilled FEMA's Brown, who continued to defend his agency's handling of claims in Miami-Dade.

"Mr. Brown, do you disagree with Florida officials who have said that the damage from Hurricane Frances in Miami-Dade County was minimal?" asked Collins. "Do you disagree with the Weather Service assessment that there was no flooding?"

"It is not a matter of whether I disagree," Brown said. " ... There was damage in Miami-Dade County."
...
For example, FEMA's policy of reimbursing for entire rooms full of furniture allowed applicants to collect money for an "11-piece bedroom suite" when all they owned was a bed, Skinner said.

The government also gave more than 5,000 Miami-Dade residents $9.3 million in "rental assistance" intended to cover moving expenses for disaster victims whose homes are severely damaged.

"We didn't find any examples where anyone actually moved out of their house," Skinner said.

"It just is extraordinary to me that payments were made to individuals who were living in undamaged homes ... $18,000, $19,000," Collins said. "These individuals also received rental assistance and yet their homes are undamaged."
...
In four cases reviewed by the committee staff, FEMA paid $2,510 to $19,430 to applicants later determined to have no damage. The government paid to repair one applicant's dryer when "there was no dryer," Collins said.

"This is not a single example," she told Brown. "We have many, many, many examples. ... By and large, these weren't close calls -- there was simply no hurricane-related damage."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema19may19,0,683890.story?page=2&coll=sfla-news-utility

 

FEMA gave $21 million in Miami-Dade, where storms were 'like a severe thunderstorm'

By Sally Kestin and Megan O'Matz
Staff Writers
Posted October 10 2004

The four hurricanes that pummeled the rest of Florida hardly brushed Miami-Dade County. Only Hurricane Frances was a factor there -- packing the punch of a bad thunderstorm.

Local officials described the damage as minimal. Yet more than 19,500 Miami-Dade residents have applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help with temporary housing, repairs, medical bills and other expenses they say were brought on by the storm. As of Friday, FEMA had approved 9,801 of those claims for a total of $21.5 million.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema10oct10,0,4751704.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

 

Suspicions don't slow Miami-Dade storm relief

By Sally Kestin
Staff Writer
Posted December 5 2004

For two months, elected leaders from Tallahassee to Washington have demanded investigations while expressing outrage that Miami-Dade County residents may have fraudulently collected millions in Hurricane Frances aid.

But no one shut off the pipeline.

Since the South Florida Sun-Sentinel first reported in early October on government aid going to a county largely spared from the storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has poured another $8 million into Miami-Dade, bringing the total as of last week to $28.6 million. The agency approved almost 3,000 additional claims during those eight weeks.

"That is mind-boggling," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton. "The idea that FEMA would continue to pay millions of dollars after the Sun-Sentinel report is even more upsetting than the initial mispayments themselves."

The findings should have alerted FEMA to what U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw said appears to be "massive misconduct."

"I would think that they would be a little bit nervous about paying out claims down in Miami-Dade, where there was no hurricane," said Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale. "That makes no sense."

...

FEMA director Michael Brown declined requests by the Sun-Sentinel for an interview but has continued to publicly defend the claims.

"Anyone who received money in Miami-Dade County deserved that money and received that money rightfully under the law," Brown told CNN on Tuesday.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema05dec05,0,33094.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

 

Miami-Dade told officials that losses were minor but FEMA aid flowed anyway

By Megan O'Matz and Sally Kestin
Staff Writers
Posted December 12 2004

Federal officials knew as early as two days after Hurricane Frances that the Labor Day storm had left little damage in Miami-Dade County.

So little that community relations teams that the Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatches to promote disaster aid and canvass areas for damage left after one day in Miami-Dade.

The workers visited neighborhoods from Bal Harbour to Kendall and contacted county emergency management officials, who told them they knew of few problems in the county.

FEMA also was receiving daily reports from emergency managers throughout Florida, showing no fatalities in Miami-Dade, power outages to fewer than 10 percent of the households, a "good supply" of fuel and damage that did not even rise to the "moderate" threshold.

Despite those early assessments, FEMA has awarded $28.9 million in disaster grants to 12,382 Miami-Dade residents. In the past week alone, FEMA sent almost $300,000 more to the county.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-afema12dec12,0,7328331.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

 

FEMA declares 22 more counties eligible for Ivan aid, despite little damage

By Sally Kestin
and Megan O'Matz Staff Writers
Posted December 14 2004

Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore in Alabama in mid-September, but Floridians as far away as Palm Beach County -- 675 miles from the storm's landfall -- can now collect disaster aid from the federal government.

Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency added 22 counties in mostly central and eastern Florida to the presidential disaster declaration, allowing residents to receive money for damaged property and belongings.

"It was just a rain event,'' said Ken Roberts, public safety director for Seminole County in northeast Florida, where residents can now apply for Ivan relief. "It wasn't anything for us to get overly excited about.''

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema14dec14,0,164166.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

 

FEMA payout scrutiny spreads to other states

By Sally Kestin and Megan O'Matz
Staff Writers
Posted December 19 2004

From Mobile, Ala., to Detroit to rural eastern North Carolina, the federal government has approved millions in assistance to areas largely unaffected by disasters, even after local officials warned of possible fraud.

The $29.2 million sent so far to residents of Miami-Dade County for Hurricane Frances, the Labor Day storm that struck 100 miles to the north, is not an anomaly, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found in its continuing investigation.

"It's just the same nationwide," said Paulette Williams, emergency management director in Mobile County.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave Mobile residents $29.5 million for flooding last year, despite repeated calls and letters from Williams saying that the county suffered no damage.

In southeastern North Carolina, FEMA has approved thousands of Frances claims in counties where the storm caused only minor problems.

"We didn't have any damage," said Mitchell Byrd, emergency management director in Bladen County, where residents have collected $2.5 million. "We've got the biggest case of fraud you've ever seen."

Officials in Wayne County, Mich., learned from the Sun-Sentinel that more than 30,000 of their residents collected $33.9 million for storms in May and June.

"That's just staggering," said Mark Hammond, Wayne County's deputy director for homeland security and emergency management. "I could see 2,000 homes, but not 30,000."

A city councilwoman in Detroit, the biggest city in Wayne County, barely remembered the storm. "I know it happened, but I don't remember that it particularly affected Detroit," said City Council President Maryann Mahaffey.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema19dec19,0,2457936.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

 

FEMA director defends funds to Miami-Dade

By Sally Kestin
Staff Writer
Posted February 13 2005

Thousands of Miami-Dade County residents who have collected almost $31 million in Hurricane Frances relief deserve not scorn but pity, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday.

In an interview Friday, FEMA Director Michael D. Brown defended the payments for the Labor Day storm that hit three counties to the north.

"There was damage in Miami-Dade County from that storm," he said. "I really feel sorry for these folks who went through the process and got their assistance and now people keep using the words fraud, cheats and everything else. ... I think we need to give them the benefit of the doubt."

Most aid went to residents of low-income areas, where FEMA paid for appliances, clothes and other items.

"Things like microwaves, TVs and couches, and that sort of thing, is something that Congress has said FEMA will reimburse you for," Brown said. "The things that we paid for, particularly in those poor neighborhoods, are things that under the federal law we are required to pay for."

Florida members of Congress from both parties said they do not accept FEMA's explanations.

The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's umbrella agency, continues to investigate but refuses to comment on the findings.

"I will tell you that they have told me that generally speaking in Florida, they have found nothing out of the ordinary," Brown said Friday.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, said Brown has "jumped the gun."

Inspector general representatives told Wexler last week that they are "somewhat astonished" at FEMA's denial of any problems in Miami-Dade, he said.

"It is incredibly irresponsible, at a minimum, for the director of FEMA to prejudge his own department's investigation," Wexler said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-brown13feb13,0,4950680.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

 

State records show Bush re-election concerns played part in FEMA aid

Consultant predicted a `huge mess'

By Megan O'Matz & Sally Kestin
Staff Writers
Posted March 23 2005

As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show.

Two weeks later, a Florida official summarizing the hurricane response wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handing out housing assistance "to everyone who needs it without asking for much information of any kind."

The records are contained in hundreds of pages of Gov. Jeb Bush's storm-related e-mails initially requested by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Oct. 13.

The governor's office finally released the documents Friday, after threat of a lawsuit by the newspaper.

...politics was foremost on the mind of FEMA consultant Glenn Garcelon, who wrote a three-page memo titled "Hurricane Frances -- Thoughts and Suggestions," on Sept. 2.

The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President Bush had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry. Winning Florida was key to the president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it is portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the team effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local officials, the insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies such as the Red Cross.

"What FEMA cannot afford to do is back itself into a corner by feeling it has to be the sole explainer and defender for everything that goes wrong," he wrote. "Further, this is not what the President would want. Plenty is going to go wrong, and his Department of Homeland Security does not want to assume responsibility for all of it."

Garcelon, a former FEMA employee, recommended that "top-level people from FEMA and the White House need to develop a communication strategy and an agreed-upon set of themes and communications objectives."

"Communication consultants from the President's re-election campaign should be brought in," he wrote. "Above all, everybody's got to understand that no amount of flogging DHS/ FEMA will insure that the recovery will go perfectly. This is going to be a huge mess. The public needs to be prepared for it."

...

Garcelon, in his memo, cautioned that processing applications for assistance after Frances in case of a catastrophic housing need could be overwhelming for FEMA, which was still dealing with the ramifications of Hurricane Charley.

"A logical and defensible means for establishing blanket eligibility must be developed," he wrote, suggesting that FEMA rely on aerial photographs and computerized mapping in deciding where to deliver aid.

"Cannot allow an inspection backlog to develop," he wrote of the process of examining each home for damage. "Everything points in that direction unless we get creative here."

...

FEMA acknowledged that in Miami-Dade County and in other areas of the state, however, the agency took the rare step, given the magnitude of the disaster, of awarding $726 in "expedited" housing assistance to people who asked for it, without immediately sending inspectors to verify damage.

In a Sept. 13 memo to Gov. Bush and other top state officials, Orlando J. Cabrera, executive director of the Florida Housing Finance Corp. and a member of the governor's Hurricane Housing Work Group, wrote after a meeting with FEMA that the agency was allocating short-term rental assistance to "everyone who needs it, without asking for much information of any kind."

Other so-called "standard housing assistance," of up to $25,600, he wrote, is "liberally provided without significant scrutiny of the request made during the initial months; scrutiny increases remarkably and the package is far more stringent after an unspecified time."

Even state officials were surprised at how quickly money flowed to Florida.

The day after Hurricane Charley hit the west coast, the state's labor chief, Susan Pareigis, asked for a federal grant for unemployment assistance for storm victims.

Four days later, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao "was down personally" to award the money, Pareigis wrote in an Aug. 24 e-mail to the governor. "Please express our sincere thank you for such an instantaneous response."

The governor forwarded her e-mail to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card in less than 10 minutes.

"Please tell the President and your team how grateful we are," Gov. Bush wrote. "The response has been awesome from FEMA and other departments."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema23mar23,0,5144922.story?coll=sfla-news-utility