Bring in the clowns
Thirteen who don't think they got a big enough piece of the pie after Katrina, have filed a lawsuit against FEMA.
One of the plaintiffs, Russell and Tammy Hayward who are staying with a friend in Texas, filed an application for FEMA assistance and received a check for $2,358 but spent it on "clothes, bed linens and bath stuff."The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, wants FEMA ordered to immediately provide trailers or other housing alternatives, especially to those still in shelters, and asks that victims with larger families receive more money. -- ABC News
Oh, and on "emergency dental care," too, according to this coverage from the New York Times.
(Emergency dental care?)
But since they claim FEMA didn't specifically tell them that it had to be spent on housing, now that they've spent the money they want more for housing 'cause, "I didn't go out and spend money on anything except everything anyone else has in their own home."
When FEMA found out he spent the money on items other than housing, the agency denied him additional assistance. -- again, ABC News.
The New York Times also notes the absolutely ghastly manner in which FEMA has treated Mr. William Davis, "a construction worker, [one of] 12 siblings, several of whom lived off and on in their mother's home before the hurricane." Mr. Davis was denied housing assistance by FEMA because it "generally approves only one assistance payment per household." And his brother had already applied.Wait a minute! Weren't they staying in their mother's house?
I wonder, too, how much they all got from Red Cross and / or other programs they've received help from.
But, it doesn't matter now, does it, 'cause here come the clowns.
posted by doyle at 9:33 PM
6 Comments:
Unbelievable! Another thing that astounded me was the Foodstamp handout down here... EVERYone is eligible for a month's worth of foodstamps, and the larger the family the more the dollar amount.
WHY? Why is the government throwing money out the window willy-nilly? If someone doesn't have the resources to re-stock their fridge after a power outage, something is terribly wrong.
Emergency dental care is an emergency and is very important. One of the most common causes of death in pre-antibiotic days was calls "Ludwig's Angina," in which a dental abcess leats to cellulitis which obstructs the airway causing death by asphyxiation. Other dental emergencies such as broken teeth, cracked teeth, broken jaws, traumatically removed teeth, abcess, and severe lacerations of the gums or tongue can be extremely severe. If, in fact, this family had a dental emergency, any suggestion that it was a waste of federal money to use it to relieve excruciating pain or potentially life threatening illness is absurd.
Great blog Doyle, and thanks for linking me. I'll link ya up and put you on the list of daily hits. Didn't realize it until I checked TLB and seen your name... thanks.
A completely separate issue, Billo.
The a link to complaint filed can be found here.
Katrina hit August 29. The Haywards submitted an application for Temporary Housing Assistance with FEMA on September 7. They, now in Texas (with friends) by way of Florida (where they stayed with friends), received the check from FEMA on October 6 but claiming they didn't know what it was for and FEMA didn't tell them it was the housing assistance they'd asked for, spent it on other things. A little over a month later, the lawsuit is filed.
They went through $2,358 in four week's time, Bill, saying part of it was spent on emergency dental work done at least a month after Katrina. So how is the emergency dental work disaster related?
Oh, and it's all Dubya's fault. If he hadn't cut the funding to the Army Corps of Engineers for the levees yadda yadda.
FYI, the principal law firm in this lawsuit is the same one leading the charge against voters in Georgia having to show ID before they cast their ballots.
I'm not arguing that none of the money was misspent. All I'm saying is that of the possible criticisms, the claim of dental emergency is *not* a valid criticism.
Going through $2500 is pretty easy with dental work. I don't know what they had done -- my last dental emergency (a traumatic fracture that required a crown)cost me $1200.
You ask how a dental emergency some time after an event can be related to an event. Tooth damage can evolve over time following trauma. For instance, my wife was in a bad car accident in the mid 1970s, resulting in a fracture of her jaw and cheek, involving both the upper and lower arches. Over the ensuing 30 years, she has had multiple dental problems, including emergencies, resulting from the slow effects of that trauma. It is the result of delayed death, abcess, and fracture of the teeth on that side of the face. Her last such dental emergency -- a split tooth that caused significant hemorrhage and nerve damage -- occurred 20 years after the event.
Thank you for the explanation, Anonymous. I hope your wife is doing well.
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