And Yet Another Fucking “Disaster”

Posted on June 14th, 2006 by Christine.
Categories: Pissed Off & Proud of It.

The poverty-stricken people displaced by Hurricane Katrina last year– and the images of people sitting on their rooftops for days, waiting to be airlifted to safety, touched the hearts of many. Almost everyone I know (including Christopher) donated generously to help the victims of Katrina as the news about how FEMA was increasingly botching rescue efforts began to unravel more and more by the day.

As you’ll recall… President George W. stood by FEMA president Michael D. Brown, praising him for “a heck of a job.” Now I don’t know about you… but where I come from… “a heck of a job” usually means you did well. But it soon become apparent that good ole Mike wasn’t impressing everyone. A week after his public praise, Mr. Brown was replaced by Thad Allen who took over the relief efforts. And at the same time, FEMA announced they would discontinue their program of providing hurricane victims with $2,000 debit cards. But apparently by that point, a lot more damage had been done than anyone realized.

CNN reported today that a federal audit concluded that those debit cards– FEMA’s innovative instant relief effort to victims– generated $1 Billion in potential fraud. The cards were given to pretty much anyone who asked for one whether they were hurricane victims or not. Among the “life-sustaining essentials” purchased were $200 bottles of wine at Hooters, pornography, strip club admissions, payments to divorce lawyers, and vacations to the Dominican Republic. In addition to giving them out to unconfirmed loss victims, FEMA lost track of 750 cards altogether, totalling $1.5 Million. The audit also uncovered months worth of free hotel rooms to people who were simultaneously being reimbursed for property rental.

I mean, when I heard about the debit card program last August, I thought “hrmmm…. that seems like a really difficult program to monitor and it doesn’t seem like $2,000 will really do that much to help people who don’t even have homes…” but what do I know right? I mean, it’s not like I’m the head of a major government agency and would have any experience in trouble shooting this kind of thing.

FEMA, quite frankly, is as much of a disaster as Katrina was. It still is. The people who truly did lose their homes and livelihoods– without even a city to go back to– are finally starting to put their lives together. Many of them moved to neighboring states creating a burden on the welfare systems and homeless shelters there. I know that no one could have predicted the hurricane, but I don’t think it’s too much to expect that our government would have something better in place than a debit card program that cost taxpayers a billion dollars in fraud alone. That’s a billion dollars that could have made a difference in rebuilding New Orleans, in helping people set up homes and businesses in other parts of the country, that could have assisted young kids who suddenly couldn’t go to school, to become involved in educational programs so they wouldn’t fall behind.

It’s just sad that we have all these resources available, and FEMA’s lack of preparedness and inability to manage their own programs costs not only the taxpayers, but the people who needed it most.

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