FEMA won't help....

Posted on Thu, Sep. 01, 2005

• Low-interest loans ASSISTANCE

FEMA denies some storm help. Federal emergency officials will not give aid to individual storm victims in South Florida, saying local damage was not extensive enough.
BY NOAH BIERMAN AND MARY ELLEN KLAS nbierman@herald.com

The federal government will not help to pay lodging and repair expenses for South Floridians whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina, officials said Wednesday.

The decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency drew swift protests from South Florida politicians. Democrats asked President Bush to reverse it. Republicans led an effort to draft a separate letter to FEMA under-secretary Michael Brown, asking him to reverse it.
The same day FEMA denied individual assistance, the agency expanded the amount it plans to reimburse local governments for repairs to public property in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties. The assistance to local governments will probably amount to more than $100 million.

The decision to deny help to individuals came following nearly a year of intense criticism of the agency. Politicians, auditors and press accounts have accused FEMA of giving money to residents who were far from the path of four storms that hit the state last year.

''I've reached the conclusion now that FEMA is essentially a political organization,'' said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Weston Democrat who claimed the agency was more generous last year because the storms preceded an election. ``They had a standard that was basically fluid from storm to storm. And there are people in Broward and Miami-Dade who are going to be hurting badly.''

MIX OF FACTORS
FEMA spokeswoman Frances Marine has rejected that claim. She said the agency relied on a combination of factors to determine that South Florida was not hit hard enough to receive the aid, including the fact that about half the damaged properties in Miami-Dade were insured and that damage in Broward was mostly minor.

She said last year's storms were more severe in Florida, and that the cumulative effects of four back-to-back storms overwhelmed state resources.

''In a nutshell, fortunately the damage wasn't there'' this time, Marine said.

FEMA's individual assistance program would have provided up to $26,200 per household to pay for long-term rentals, repairs and temporary stays in hotels. In some cases, FEMA also pays for funerals for storm victims.

While much of the damage in South Florida was nuisance flooding, such as wet carpets, poor neighborhoods were hit hardest, said Frank Kutnick, chief of recovery for the state of Florida.
''To the poorer populations, this is a big deal,'' he said.

Local and state emergency managers said they were told by FEMA officials that the agency denied the aid because the state did not have 800 homes destroyed or severely damaged.
In previous storms, FEMA required severe damage or destruction to only 100 homes within a single county, said Carlos Castillo, who heads Miami-Dade's emergency operations.
Officially, the storm destroyed 19 homes and severely damaged 205 more in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe Counties.

Under the previous criteria, Miami-Dade would have been eligible because it had 184 of the severely damaged homes. Broward also may have qualified because FEMA had been more flexible following previous storms, said Tony Carper, Broward's emergency operations coordinator.

Carper said FEMA has been using a more conservative standard since it came under heavy criticism for giving money to Miami residents who were not near any of four storms that hit Florida last year.

Many Florida congressmen have been among the most critical of FEMA, but Wednesday's ruling did not please them.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat, and three of his colleagues, drafted a letter to President Bush, asking for help.

ENOUGH MONEY
Meek's spokesman, Drew Hammill, said FEMA has enough money to help in Florida, even as it addresses much larger problems along the Gulf Coast.

'Using a `state threshold' to deny FEMA's help to individual Floridians who need it is like denying medical aid to a few hundred sick people because several hundred people aren't sick,'' Meek wrote.

A Republican-led letter was more complimentary of FEMA, but asked for the same thing. At least one Democrat, Wasserman Schultz, plans to sign the letter.

In the meantime, local governments plan to seek help from the Small Business Administration, which offers low-interest loans to homeowners, renters and businesses that suffered damage. But South Dade residents may not be eligible for that program for a while.

Local officials have to finish their appeals to FEMA before the Small Business Administration makes its decision.
Wrap...