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COPYRIGHT 2005 South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Byline: Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz and John Maines
With hundreds of thousands forced from homes battered by Hurricane Katrina, the federal government cut red tape to rush $2,000 checks and debit cards to help victims pay for clothes, food, transportation and a place to live.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency intended the aid for displaced Gulf Coast families and limited it to one payment per household.
But in three Louisiana parishes, FEMA issued more checks than there are households, at a cost to taxpayers of at least $70 million, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation has found.
And in 36 parishes and counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, FEMA awarded $102 million to at least 51,000 more applicants than local officials said were displaced by the storm.
The newspaper's findings are based on a review of $1.46 billion in FEMA claims paid through Sept. 22 and interviews with local officials from 54 counties and parishes.
Some of the same patterns of waste and fraud found after Florida's four hurricanes last year are occurring in the Gulf Coast states despite assurances by federal officials that steps have been taken to curb abuses.
In Mobile, Ala., residents coached each other on the right words to use when calling FEMA to get the $2,000. Many who received the money never had to leave their homes. Some had minor roof leaks. One said her furniture got wet because she kept opening her door to watch the storm.
"Unbelievable," said Mobile Police Lt. Christon Dorsey, a member of a hurricane fraud task force.
He estimated fewer than 300 Mobile County residents were displaced and in need of emergency aid, not the 17,050 who collected $34.1 million.
"That's unreal," he said. "That's extremely disproportionate to what it should be."
In Pike County, Miss., Katrina displaced 25 families,...
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