The Storm of the Century's disgraceful aftermath The Biggest Easy - Fooling FEMA It's officially the beginning of hurricane season, and fittingly enough, Florida is bracing for the first storm of the season. As I'm writing this, evacuations have already begun. I wish those Floridians in the storm's path all the best, and a minimally eventful encounter with Father Nature. But apparently that's not the only storm brewing. According to a recent Associated Press article, the Federal Emergency Management Association () - yes, the same folks who botched the Hurricane Katrina response so badly last summer - has yet another disaster on its hands. Thankfully, it involves no loss of life, only the loss of millions of your tax dollars to opportunistic hustlers in the aftermath of the Storm of the Century. The article maintains that the Federal government shelled out as much as $1.4 billion in relief funds to fraudulent "victims" of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita - some WEREN'T EVEN RESIDENTS of the affected states. This represents as much as 16% of the total amount of relief dollars FEMA disbursed in the months following the storm, the Government Accounting Office estimates. Of course, FEMA disputes this figure. They claim that "only" around $17 million was fraudulently awarded, and they say they're making efforts to recollect this money from the wrongful beneficiaries… Now, I don't know about you, but I don't normally trust one government agency over another. However, given FEMA's track record and potential embarrassment at every misappropriated penny, I have to think the relatively impartial GAO's numbers are more accurate, especially considering some of the examples. According to the investigation, FEMA's "relief" dollars paid for, among other things: 5 season tickets for the 2005-2006 New Orleans Saints NFL football schedule
An all-expense-paid Caribbean vacation to the Dominican Republic
Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages
A 70-night stretch at a $100-a-night Hawaiian hotel
Adult "gratification" products in Houston, Texas
Pornography in Santa Monica, California
A divorce lawyer, and last but not least…
A SEX CHANGE OPERATION That's not all, either - keep reading…
At least one Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigator received $2,358 in rent assistance even though he did not live at the address he provided to FEMA - and continued to receive money even after the agency knew he didn't live there!
A number of people were paid for BOTH rental assistance and hotel stays. According to the AP piece, over 1,000 payments were made to people who used the names and Social Security numbers of prison inmates - in six different states. Beyond this, FEMA doled out over $5 million to post office boxes, not actual affected addresses. Again, not all of these were in the affected areas… The GAO investigation even found one person who collected $139,000 under 13 different Social Security numbers - all to the SAME ADDRESS. They also found evidence of "relief" payments to a resident of West Virginia! Bottom line: If FEMA's response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn't convince you of the agency's incompetence, then the billion-dollar river of your cash being funneled to thousands of improper recipients - most of them not even very skilled at perpetrating frauds - definitely should. The only thing that surprises me about the whole deal is the fact that another government agency was competent enough to sniff out the scandal… That's as much of a fluke as the storm that all but wiped out the City that Care Forgot. Not surprised - just well advised, William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
