In this Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 picture, Evelyn Turner cries alongside the body of her common-law husband, Xavier Bowie, after he died in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
After all that has happened over the past six years, why would FEMA want to fleece the Katrina victims?
Hurricane season is now upon us, and with climate change a daily reality, storms are expected to increase in frequency and intensity. The devastating tornado damage in Joplin, Missouri is a testament to this new reality. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) predicts as many as 18 storms for this year, of which 10 could become hurricane grade.
It goes without saying that the folks at FEMA have their work cut out for them. The agency, which oversees disaster relief, still faces a public relations problem over its incompetent and slow response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the formaldehyde-laden trailers provided as temporary housing for the displaced victims, and the mismanagement in doling out disaster payments to residents who lost their homes, their possessions and their livelihood. This backdrop makes it even more perplexing that the agency would now demand that some of the Katrina victims return the money they received from FEMA.
Click here to view a Grio slideshow: Iconic images of Hurricane Katrina
FEMA says it made mistakes and overpaid and mistakenly awarded victims of Katrina and Rita in 2005. The agency is scouring the over $600 million it gave to 154,000 people, under 10 percent of the $7 billion in FEMA aid under its individual assistance program. Already, the agency has sent letters to thousands of people, asking them to cough up over $22 million. This recall effort does not apply to other big-ticket disaster programs that were the beneficiaries of federal funds.
On a superficial level, we can try to understand the context, the backdrop if you will, under which this latest FEMA move is taking place. Times are tough, budget cuts are all the rage, and government austerity measures are trendy. On the local and federal level, vital programs and services face deep cuts, as Americans are told they must tighten their belts, and do more with less. So, it only makes sense that government bureaucracies identify cost-saving and revenue-enhancing measures, right? Hold on a minute.
For the disproportionately poor and African-American residents of New Orleans, this new demand by FEMA is nothing more than double punishment for people who already have suffered enough, and have suffered too much. Regarded by FEMA as little more than Third World refugees in 2005, they were victims of shoddy levees, and a slow response from a government that did a "heckuva job Brownie," as then-President Bush said of his FEMA chief Michael Brown, a former horse show judge. Many people lost everything in the floods, and when they received a payment form FEMA -- and many did not -- it wasn't enough.
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