Holy Shit!!!! Please read this (just mentioned by Randi) [View All]

[CatWoman]

CASHING IN ON DISASTER

FEMA worker Mary Ann Carlisle left these "sample letters'' with the Medical Examiner in Polk County, hoping to persuade him to link a death to the hurricanes. The letters suggest wording from doctors to allow FEMA to approve funeral claims.


Hurricane Frances hit South Florida Labor Day weekend, 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County, but Sun-Sentinel reporters found that the federal government approved $28 million in storm claims there for new furniture and clothes and thousands of new televisions microwaves, refrigerators and other appliances. The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for new cars, dental bills and a funeral even though the Medical Examiner recorded no deaths from Frances. In an ongoing series of reports, the newspaper also found FEMA inspectors were given only cursory training and attributed damage to tornadoes - there were none recorded in the county - and in six instances listed “ice/snow’’ as the cause. The reports have prompted calls for investigations by federal and state officials and the beginnings of an inquiry by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security.

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

Probe sought into questionable aid to Miami-Dade 'hurricane victims'
Three Florida members of Congress on Monday called for investigations into how the federal government awards disaster aid and why at least 9,800 Miami-Dade applicants have received more than $21 million in Hurricane Frances assistance even though the storm inflicted little damage in the county.

FEMA director says agency looking into Miami-Dade claims
As Hurricane Frances moved ashore over the Treasure Coast last month, the federal government declared Miami-Dade County a disaster area eligible for individual aid even though the storm's outer bands barely had touched the county.

Miami-Dade FEMA claims high in poor areas
HOMESTEAD -- The manager of a check-cashing store in this southern Miami-Dade city says he has cashed as many as 30 disaster relief checks a day for residents since Hurricane Frances hit Florida on Labor Day weekend.

State to pay $60 million share of hurricane aid
The state will pay more than $60 million as its share of federal hurricane assistance to Floridians but has no control over how the money is spent or who gets it.

MORE: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-femacoverage,0,6697347.storygallery?coll=sfla-news-utility

Chief coroner warns of more FEMA waste on funeral overpayments

Despite assurances from federal officials that they will change the way they award disaster funeral assistance, taxpayer money will likely still be wasted, Florida's chief medical examiner predicted Thursday.

After last year's hurricanes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid funeral expenses for more than 200 Floridians who died of cancer, AIDS, heart disease and other causes that had nothing to do with the storms, medical examiners found. FEMA announced a new policy last week tightening up some of its procedures but continues to allow family doctors to link deaths to a disaster.

"Nothing's changed," said Dr. Stephen Nelson, head of Florida's Medical Examiners Commission. "We'll be back to many more deaths than what we're counting as hurricane-related."

Meeting on Key Biscayne on Thursday, the commission announced preliminary results of its review of 306 of the 319 deaths resulting in FEMA payments. They found more than 200 cases that were not caused by the storms.As the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday, FEMA paid cremation expenses for a Charlotte County man who died of liver cirrhosis five months after Hurricane Charley and for a Palm Beach Gardens heart patient who left an estate worth $2 million.

MORE: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema12aug12,0,3244371.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

Letter to doctors instructing how to get FEMA cash

http://a1022.g.akamai.net/f/1022/8165/5m/images.sun-sentinel.com/media/acrobat/2005-04/17058878.pdf