Review traces FEMA funeral payouts.

May 1--In the aftermath of the worst hurricane season in Florida history, federal disaster officials paid funeral bills for the victims of 93 heart attacks, 16 cancer deaths, several folks who died days before the storm, and even one man who drank himself to death, a Herald review has found.

But there is a flip side.

Ambulances arrived too late to save some people because of fallen trees. Oxygen tanks went dark along with the lights. The sick and the frail made fatal decisions to lift limbs and haul debris. One man couldn't get dialysis because the clinic had closed for the storm.

Critics of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- armed mostly with statistics alone -- question these funeral payouts on grounds that these storm victims weren't included on the state medical examiners' lists of hurricane deaths.

But until now, no one outside of FEMA has been able to identify who they are or investigate the details of their deaths.

FEMA, citing privacy concerns, refuses to divulge the identities of any of its clients.

But The Herald -- in the first comprehensive review of the funeral payouts -- identified more than 200 of the 321 families who received funeral aid from FEMA.

Reporters…