FEMA's generator reimbursements flowed to wealthier pockets
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/26/s1a_FEMAGEN_0326.html
By Eliot Kleinberg, Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 26, 2006
When Wilma knocked out power across South Florida, tens of thousands of people wheeled generators out of home improvement centers and fired them up in their driveways. More than 20,000 local homes sent the bill to FEMA.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency spent nearly $20 million in the six weeks following Wilma to reimburse households from Fort Pierce to Boca Raton and west to Lake Okeechobee. About half of those in Palm Beach County were in areas with a median income of $60,000 or more. About half of those in Martin County, and 40 percent of those in St. Lucie County, were in areas with median incomes of more than $50,000.
FEMA didn't just pay for generators. It paid for chain saws, wet-dry vacuums, dehumidifiers and air purifiers.
The multimillion-dollar payout for the 2005 storm wasn't a first for FEMA: The agency also spent millions reimbursing Florida households in 2004 after four hurricanes struck the state.
The program has come under fire because so many people who could easily afford a $700 to $900 generator took federal money from an agency that already was dealing with several disasters, including catastrophic flooding in New Orleans. Critics question the propriety of the reimbursements and FEMA's policy of not applying an income test.
"I'm troubled by the expectation where we bail everyone out," U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, said from Washington. "There are certain reasons FEMA exists. But it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous."
Craig Fugate, Florida's director of emergency management, said, "It was more like, 'Hey, it's the lottery. We got hit by the hurricane. We won a generator.' "
Fugate also wondered about a policy of paying only for generators bought when the power was out, not those bought before the storm.
"It's not really effective if we're reimbursing only after the fact," Fugate said. "We don't want to penalize people who prepare."
To encourage preparation, Gov. Jeb Bush has recommended generator purchases be included in the state's hurricane season preparation tax holiday. Florida then would consider pulling out of the reimbursement program, for which it pays 25 percent to FEMA's 75 percent and only in areas struck by a storm, Fugate said.
FEMA has sent mixed signals even on when it will pay. The agency said in November that it would pay for items bought from Oct. 19 to Nov. 18, and inspectors must verify that electricity went out in the home. That period is five days before Wilma struck and nearly a month after.
But the agency said later that generators had to be bought when power was out, "as reported by the local power company."
In the case of Wilma, except for small outfits in Lake Worth and elsewhere, the "local power company" was Florida Power & Light Co., which had to contend with outages in more than 6 million customer households from the Keys to Central Florida. FPL officials said all power was restored to Martin and St. Lucie counties by Nov. 5 and to Palm Beach County by Nov. 9.
Numerous attempts over several weeks to get FEMA to clarify its policy have been unsuccessful.
FEMA also did not respond to requests to respond to critics of the reimbursement program. Concerns about generator payments from FEMA were initially reported in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
No help for planning ahead
The FEMA statistics show an inconsistent picture of the financial conditions of those who were reimbursed.
Residents in ZIP code 33428, west of Boca Raton, where the median household income is $62,727, got more reimbursements for generators than any other: 1,197. In the island town of Palm Beach, where the median income is over $100,000, only a dozen residents were reimbursed. In Martin and St. Lucie counties, the top three ZIP codes in numbers of homes reimbursed were Port St. Lucie-area neighborhoods with median household incomes from $39,000 to $51,000.
The six ZIP codes ringing the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee — the poorest and hardest-hit in the county —accounted for 861 generator reimbursements. Three of those ZIP codes had the highest rate of reimbursement.
In the Wellington ZIP code, 33414, where the median income is $82,000, nearly 1,100 people were reimbursed.
Pete Wallwork wasn't one of them. Wallwork, a firefighter, bought his generator just before Hurricane Frances in 2004. His wife suffers from heart disease and her ill parents were living with Wallwork as well.
Although Wallwork suffered heavy losses in all three storms, FEMA refused to pay.
"That's a brilliant plan. So you plan ahead and think about it, (and) there's no reimbursement," Wallwork scoffed.
David A. Smith of Stuart, a former Martin County 911 dispatcher, was struck by lightning through his headset in August 1992. He lives on Social Security, and his household income is about $10,000. Right before Wilma, he spent $700 on a generator to keep his refrigerator going and run a nebulizer for his 84-year-old father. FEMA never responded to his claim.
"We got the royal runaround," he said.
Other residents pointed to inconsistencies by FEMA in settling reimbursement claims.
Nancy Pire of suburban Lake Worth, who teaches computer skills to data processors for Palm Beach County schools, was living with her unemployed diabetic daughter and 18-month-old granddaughter when Wilma hit. The three lived on about $30,000 a year.
The morning after the storm, Pire frantically searched area stores for a generator. In desperation, she bought one for $850 from a man at the corner of Forest Hill Boulevard and Military Trail. The man wrote out a receipt, signed and dated it, and put down his phone number, Pire said. The FEMA inspector who came to her home told her the agency would not pay because the receipt was not from a store.
"I know two other people who were paid and didn't even send a receipt," Pire said. "They didn't even have the generator at their house when the FEMA guy came."
But FEMA did pay Pire for her collapsed garage door, she said.
Pharmacist Paul Ackerman of suburban Palm Beach Gardens bought a generator during the five days he was without power following Hurricane Jeanne. Ackerman then learned FEMA was reimbursing people for generators. Despite having a household income of $80,000, he applied for and got the $800 he paid for the unit, plus another $50 for gasoline he'd bought. He said he had qualms but took the money anyway.
"I do pay good taxes," Ackerman said. "Why should I give it all to the poor people? Get a little back for myself."
Some people got more than they spent.
Charlie Backman of Jupiter Farms, a retired insurance claim manager, bought a $178.88 chain saw after Wilma to replace one that broke during cleanup. A FEMA representative came to his house and looked at his receipt. Later, FEMA sent him $226.80. Backman wrote a check for the difference and asked the agency to explain the overpayment. The agency never wrote back, but did cash his check a month after he sent it.
"If they're paying guys like for me for chain saws, and my neighbor got reimbursed for a generator, for $2,500, what a rip-off," Backman said.
FEMA does not release information on individuals, citing privacy considerations.
Money misses mark
South Bay Mayor Clarence Anthony said he was bothered by a system that reimburses only those who can afford to pay for the generator up front.
"While we were passing out the water and the ice, I would say, 90 percent of the people did not have generators. It was a money issue," Anthony said. He said people should be able to get generators through community development block grants.
"There's got to be a more creative way to find resources to help the poor be prepared," Anthony said. He said he already owned a generator, which he lent to friends following the storms, and did not seek FEMA reimbursement.
Florida emergency manager Fugate said that when he asked FEMA officials about setting up income standards so only the neediest get help, "They kind of shrugged." He said the officials told him it slows the pace and that guidelines are vague.
Deni Elliott, a professor of ethics at the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus, compared the FEMA program to insurance, which reimburses people for losses whether they can afford them or not.
"I can see a rich guy making the argument that a lot of the money is going to graft and greed, and is not being used in appropriate ways, and so why shouldn't they benefit? The more interesting question is really how to make funds accessible for people that needed them when they need them," Elliott said.
Randy Cohen, who writes a nationally syndicated column on ethics, said there's a bigger picture to think about.
"If we all agree that we want public money to be for people that truly need it, then the ethical question we should ask is why FEMA has such a boneheaded program," Cohen said.
"If this was Japan 75 years ago, these people would have to commit suicide. They would feel honor bound," Cohen said from New York. "It's dishonorable to do this. But it is a petty transgression compared to what routinely goes on. If you're going to make a fuss, then you need to make a fuss about the people that are making 100 times that a day."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/26/s1a_FEMAGEN_0326.html
By Eliot Kleinberg, Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 26, 2006
When Wilma knocked out power across South Florida, tens of thousands of people wheeled generators out of home improvement centers and fired them up in their driveways. More than 20,000 local homes sent the bill to FEMA.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency spent nearly $20 million in the six weeks following Wilma to reimburse households from Fort Pierce to Boca Raton and west to Lake Okeechobee. About half of those in Palm Beach County were in areas with a median income of $60,000 or more. About half of those in Martin County, and 40 percent of those in St. Lucie County, were in areas with median incomes of more than $50,000.
FEMA didn't just pay for generators. It paid for chain saws, wet-dry vacuums, dehumidifiers and air purifiers.
The multimillion-dollar payout for the 2005 storm wasn't a first for FEMA: The agency also spent millions reimbursing Florida households in 2004 after four hurricanes struck the state.
The program has come under fire because so many people who could easily afford a $700 to $900 generator took federal money from an agency that already was dealing with several disasters, including catastrophic flooding in New Orleans. Critics question the propriety of the reimbursements and FEMA's policy of not applying an income test.
"I'm troubled by the expectation where we bail everyone out," U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, said from Washington. "There are certain reasons FEMA exists. But it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous."
Craig Fugate, Florida's director of emergency management, said, "It was more like, 'Hey, it's the lottery. We got hit by the hurricane. We won a generator.' "
Fugate also wondered about a policy of paying only for generators bought when the power was out, not those bought before the storm.
"It's not really effective if we're reimbursing only after the fact," Fugate said. "We don't want to penalize people who prepare."
To encourage preparation, Gov. Jeb Bush has recommended generator purchases be included in the state's hurricane season preparation tax holiday. Florida then would consider pulling out of the reimbursement program, for which it pays 25 percent to FEMA's 75 percent and only in areas struck by a storm, Fugate said.
FEMA has sent mixed signals even on when it will pay. The agency said in November that it would pay for items bought from Oct. 19 to Nov. 18, and inspectors must verify that electricity went out in the home. That period is five days before Wilma struck and nearly a month after.
But the agency said later that generators had to be bought when power was out, "as reported by the local power company."
In the case of Wilma, except for small outfits in Lake Worth and elsewhere, the "local power company" was Florida Power & Light Co., which had to contend with outages in more than 6 million customer households from the Keys to Central Florida. FPL officials said all power was restored to Martin and St. Lucie counties by Nov. 5 and to Palm Beach County by Nov. 9.
Numerous attempts over several weeks to get FEMA to clarify its policy have been unsuccessful.
FEMA also did not respond to requests to respond to critics of the reimbursement program. Concerns about generator payments from FEMA were initially reported in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
No help for planning ahead
The FEMA statistics show an inconsistent picture of the financial conditions of those who were reimbursed.
Residents in ZIP code 33428, west of Boca Raton, where the median household income is $62,727, got more reimbursements for generators than any other: 1,197. In the island town of Palm Beach, where the median income is over $100,000, only a dozen residents were reimbursed. In Martin and St. Lucie counties, the top three ZIP codes in numbers of homes reimbursed were Port St. Lucie-area neighborhoods with median household incomes from $39,000 to $51,000.
The six ZIP codes ringing the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee — the poorest and hardest-hit in the county —accounted for 861 generator reimbursements. Three of those ZIP codes had the highest rate of reimbursement.
In the Wellington ZIP code, 33414, where the median income is $82,000, nearly 1,100 people were reimbursed.
Pete Wallwork wasn't one of them. Wallwork, a firefighter, bought his generator just before Hurricane Frances in 2004. His wife suffers from heart disease and her ill parents were living with Wallwork as well.
Although Wallwork suffered heavy losses in all three storms, FEMA refused to pay.
"That's a brilliant plan. So you plan ahead and think about it, (and) there's no reimbursement," Wallwork scoffed.
David A. Smith of Stuart, a former Martin County 911 dispatcher, was struck by lightning through his headset in August 1992. He lives on Social Security, and his household income is about $10,000. Right before Wilma, he spent $700 on a generator to keep his refrigerator going and run a nebulizer for his 84-year-old father. FEMA never responded to his claim.
"We got the royal runaround," he said.
Other residents pointed to inconsistencies by FEMA in settling reimbursement claims.
Nancy Pire of suburban Lake Worth, who teaches computer skills to data processors for Palm Beach County schools, was living with her unemployed diabetic daughter and 18-month-old granddaughter when Wilma hit. The three lived on about $30,000 a year.
The morning after the storm, Pire frantically searched area stores for a generator. In desperation, she bought one for $850 from a man at the corner of Forest Hill Boulevard and Military Trail. The man wrote out a receipt, signed and dated it, and put down his phone number, Pire said. The FEMA inspector who came to her home told her the agency would not pay because the receipt was not from a store.
"I know two other people who were paid and didn't even send a receipt," Pire said. "They didn't even have the generator at their house when the FEMA guy came."
But FEMA did pay Pire for her collapsed garage door, she said.
Pharmacist Paul Ackerman of suburban Palm Beach Gardens bought a generator during the five days he was without power following Hurricane Jeanne. Ackerman then learned FEMA was reimbursing people for generators. Despite having a household income of $80,000, he applied for and got the $800 he paid for the unit, plus another $50 for gasoline he'd bought. He said he had qualms but took the money anyway.
"I do pay good taxes," Ackerman said. "Why should I give it all to the poor people? Get a little back for myself."
Some people got more than they spent.
Charlie Backman of Jupiter Farms, a retired insurance claim manager, bought a $178.88 chain saw after Wilma to replace one that broke during cleanup. A FEMA representative came to his house and looked at his receipt. Later, FEMA sent him $226.80. Backman wrote a check for the difference and asked the agency to explain the overpayment. The agency never wrote back, but did cash his check a month after he sent it.
"If they're paying guys like for me for chain saws, and my neighbor got reimbursed for a generator, for $2,500, what a rip-off," Backman said.
FEMA does not release information on individuals, citing privacy considerations.
Money misses mark
South Bay Mayor Clarence Anthony said he was bothered by a system that reimburses only those who can afford to pay for the generator up front.
"While we were passing out the water and the ice, I would say, 90 percent of the people did not have generators. It was a money issue," Anthony said. He said people should be able to get generators through community development block grants.
"There's got to be a more creative way to find resources to help the poor be prepared," Anthony said. He said he already owned a generator, which he lent to friends following the storms, and did not seek FEMA reimbursement.
Florida emergency manager Fugate said that when he asked FEMA officials about setting up income standards so only the neediest get help, "They kind of shrugged." He said the officials told him it slows the pace and that guidelines are vague.
Deni Elliott, a professor of ethics at the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus, compared the FEMA program to insurance, which reimburses people for losses whether they can afford them or not.
"I can see a rich guy making the argument that a lot of the money is going to graft and greed, and is not being used in appropriate ways, and so why shouldn't they benefit? The more interesting question is really how to make funds accessible for people that needed them when they need them," Elliott said.
Randy Cohen, who writes a nationally syndicated column on ethics, said there's a bigger picture to think about.
"If we all agree that we want public money to be for people that truly need it, then the ethical question we should ask is why FEMA has such a boneheaded program," Cohen said.
"If this was Japan 75 years ago, these people would have to commit suicide. They would feel honor bound," Cohen said from New York. "It's dishonorable to do this. But it is a petty transgression compared to what routinely goes on. If you're going to make a fuss, then you need to make a fuss about the people that are making 100 times that a day."