And what about the victims of Katrina in FL and AL? Do they count?
I was thinking the same thing.
I believe that FEMA has ruled that there will be no individual grant assistance for victims of Katrina in Florida, (although I believe that there is some sort of SBA loan that might be available, although from what I understand actually applying for it is quite daunting, especially if you don't have all of your tax records). Here's one story from the Insurance Journal titled FEMA Denies Aid to Fla. Katrina Victims:
FEMA Denies Aid to Fla. Katrina Victims
September 1, 2005
South Floridians whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina will have to look elsewhere for someone to pay their lodging and repair expenses as the Federal Emergency Management Agency has refused their requests.
FEMA's decision 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," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Weston Democrat who claimed the agency was more generous last year because the storms preceded an election, told the Miami Herald. "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."
FEMA spokeswoman Frances Marine 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 told the Herald.
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.''
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.
Nope, they have not whined loud enough, Oprah has not told them the government owes them an apology, Sean Penn isn't interested in rescuing any of them, they are just sh*t out of luck.