Posted on 08/10/2005 9:45:11 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - The federal emergency agency paid for hundreds of funerals last year of Floridians whose deaths had nothing to do with the four hurricanes that hit the state, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday.
One person died before the storm even struck his town, while another died a month later in another state.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved 319 hurricane funeral claims in Florida for $1.3 million, though an agency spokeswoman said Wednesday it actually turned down more applications than it approved.
Several of the families told the newspaper they gave FEMA letters from doctors saying stress from the hurricanes possibly contributed to deaths - even though medical examiners determined the deaths were caused by heart disease and other natural ailments.
According to a review by the state Medical Examiners Commission obtained by the newspaper, at least 203 of the 319 deaths were not caused by any of the four hurricanes, including:
- A Vero Beach man who died Nov. 27 - more than a month after the last storm hit - of a heart attack in Texas. His widow said she gave FEMA a letter from her husband's cardiologist that connected his heart attack to stress from the hurricanes.
- A Palm Beach Gardens man recovering from heart surgery who died two days before Hurricane Frances struck. His widow said she reported the death to FEMA because she thought the hospital was short-staffed while preparing for Frances.
- A Miami infant born after Frances made landfall. The Miami-Dade County medical examiner said the 21-day-old infant died of an infection that was "clearly not storm-related."
- A Port Charlotte man who died of liver cirrhosis and heart failure five months after Hurricane Charley. His wife said she provided a "cheat sheet" for the doctor who wrote that stress from the hurricanes "caused his body to become deteriorated, making it difficult to fight infection."
"I can't begin to tell you what these people did to get some funding," said Rebecca Hamilton, the medical examiner for Lee County. "None of those cases were even remotely associated with any kind of a hurricane."
FEMA last week announced changes to its disaster assistance program, including how it awards funeral money. Among other things, applicants must now provide signed documentation from a coroner or doctor attributing the death to the disaster.
The newspaper reported that FEMA refused to explain the claims, citing privacy laws, but gave the names of the dead to the medical examiners with a warning not to publicly release them. The commission determined the claims were public documents under Florida law and released them to the Sun-Sentinel.
FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews told The Associated Press on Wednesday that "under federal law, FEMA is precluded from releasing information that is protected by the privacy act." She did say that more than two-thirds of the funeral claims that FEMA processed were denied.
These people should be investigated, and should be charged with criminal fraud . Repayment a must.
"These people should be investigated, and should be charged with criminal fraud "
They're dead, Jim.
FEMA pays for at least 203 funerals not related to '04 hurricanes ^
would equals should
Leaving aside the question of whether or not FEMA should be paying for funerals in the first place, it's probably a whole lot cheaper to just fork over the money on the basis of "died about this time," than to pay dozens of investigators and lawyers to sort out who qualifies, and who does not.
When you have a large budget, you MUST spend it if you wish the next budget to be larger!
FEMA execs know what they are doing when it comes to spending the taxpayers dollars.
I live in Ohio. It rained today. I wonder if FEMA would buy me a new transmission for my van.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.