The Federal Emergency Management Agency pledged at a conference in Orlando to improve its public education efforts to that in the future hurricane victims will not have unreasonable expectations about how FEMA can help them.
Michael D. Brown, under secretary for Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said at the meeting that FEMA will continue to aggressively urge all disaster victims to apply for FEMA assistance, regardless of how likely they are to get grants or loans.
“The last thing I want FEMA to be criticized for is not helping people,” Brown told the Fort Myers News-Press. He acknowledged that FEMA is asking about 7,000 Florida hurricane victims to give back some of their federal grants.
These are not fraud cases, he said. They are routine recoupment of over-payments, mostly from duplication of insurance benefits. In most disasters, FEMA recoups about 1 percent of the money it grants.
Statewide, hurricane victims share feelings from annoyance to downright anger because they feel FEMA created the expectation of widespread support by encouraging everyone to register.
FEMA should have “told people up front that they would not get any help and not act like everything would be all right,” Margo Gladney of Cape Coral, Fla. told the News-Press. She was insured and got nothing from FEMA after going through the registration process.
“It was advertised everywhere, radio, television, and the newspaper. That’s the truth,” James Nagel of Merritt Island said. He hoped FEMA would help with home repairs he still couldn’t afford after his insurance settlement. He got about $800 to cover the cost of a generator and fuel.
“After the fact, I learned they did so much for other people. I felt kind of shorted. That doesn’t mean only money wise. I felt that I wasn’t fairly heard. I felt more like a number,” Nagel said.
Even so, Brown said FEMA will continue to encourage insured disaster victims to apply for FEMA grants.
Brown said he would rather be criticized for having too many people get aid than for having eligible people miss the opportunity for help.
Better education will help people understand that FEMA is not intended to fully replace what disaster victims lose, he said.
“We are trying to do more outreach, more community relations teams,” Brown said.
Brown said better education efforts will be used this year, including a video available to county emergency response staff.
Topics Training Development
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