After the hurricane passed, many of the people in my area filed for disaster assistance. Two weeks later, many of them received checks for $800 or more. No inspections, no questions asked. I asked them, and the ones who got the cash said that they had no damage to their homes, and told FEMA so. They got a check anyway. All I got was an inspector who came to my house, and a denial letter saying that we didn't have enough damage to receive anything.
The inspector told us that the $800 was only given away during the first two weeks, and now that the disaster was more than a month ago, that money was no longer available. The thing is, we applied just a week after the storm, and were told we had to wait for an inspection.
The government makes no sense at all.
FWIW, a coworker went through the "show up, get check" thing after the '04 storms. He bought a generator and some needed supplies. A month or two later, FEMA guys came to his door and wanted the money back.
ReplyDeleteSince it's 13 years ago, that's about all I remember, but I do recall it was a no questions asked "here's some money" and later they were auditing where the money went and why.
It might well be this story isn't over yet.