FEMA gets low marks
THERE ARE SOME who hold that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is the devil's handmaiden, the government organization that is secretly planning the takeover of our free American republic, herding citizens into concentration camps with the help of black helicopters. We suspect that FEMA is a bit more benign. Still, the agency's reputation in the Old Dominion among even nonconspiratorialists has been besmirched by the way it handled claims after Hurricane Isabel's visit to the state in 2003. Now to mediate come 1st District Republican Rep. Jo Ann Davis and Sen. George Allen.
Both have sent letters to outgoing Homeland Security Administration chief Tom Ridge and outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft requesting a review of FEMA's handling of flood claims. By January, the state and federal governments had paid out $257 million in assistance to individuals and businesses affected by the massive storm, but were those payments fair?
Advocates have found that many homeowners received low-ball settlement offers. Those who appealed often got more. Alas, only 6 percent of the victims did so; most were lulled into complacency by the blue-jacketed adjusters who visited them. Citizens thought the blue jackets were FEMA workers who would do the right thing. They were not. They were contract adjusters from Computer Sciences Corp. "We need to pay people what they are due," notes Mrs. Davis. "I've learned that these CSC adjusters wrongly told my shocked, bewildered, and unsuspecting constituents they were not entitled to the benefits they were seeking."
In fact, former Maryland insurance commissioner Steven Larsen released a study in February that found that relief payouts from Hurricane Isabel were very unfair. The report uncovered a discrepancy between payments and the real costs of home repairs, misleading information from adjusters, and pressure on homeowners to settle, reports The Baltimore Sun.
Poor handling of victims' claims up front has not been FEMA's only problem. In a classic case of "the government giveth, and the government taketh away," FEMA has demanded of some citizens, without so much as a by your leave, that they return money. The Washington Times reported in February that Poquoson resident Roger Cover received a letter asking that he send back $4,160 in flood relief money. Likewise, Colonial Beach and Westmoreland County, both of which received $1.15 million in Isabel aid, were asked to return $436,000 by FEMA in September after the agency decided to "de-obligate" several projects.
Strapped by four Florida hurricanes this year, FEMA has been slow to answer complaints from legislators and others about these unfriendly practices. But Mrs. Davis and Mr. Allen hope to put the heat on now. Good for them, for the only thing worse than a natural disaster is one that's government made.