Miami-Dade cleans up on FEMA aid(Vanity kind of)

Sun-Sentinel ^ | 11/21/2004 | Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz, John Maines and Luis F. Perez

[devane617]

Government aid for Hurricane Frances bought Miami-Dade County residents rooms full of furniture, new wardrobes and thousands of appliances, including microwaves, refrigerators and sewing machines, even though the brunt of the storm missed the county. With damage limited primarily to a few fallen trees and power lines, residents claimed Frances destroyed 5,260 television sets and 1,440 air conditioners, according to records from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

[devane617]

This is a story from last November, but I heard a story on local news today that Miami-Dade has claimed $30Million in FEMA aid from last years hurricanes. Although no hurricane came within 100 miles, and according to the NWS the highest winds were 54 mph. They interviewed the Miami Fema director and he looked like he wanted to be elsewhere. More of our tax dollars spent to buy more that 5200 new TV's. I hope someone else can help keep track of this story.

[MineralMan]

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Hurricanes spawn major thunderstorms, far from the eye of the hurricane. Thunderstorms mean lightning, which can destroy electronic equipment.

If FEMA aid is available to all who suffered damage during the hurricane, well, maybe these folks fit into that category.

Is that right? I don't know, but if they qualified, they qualified.

[devane617]

The reason for the update on this story is that the NWS has reported back to FEMA that "NO" unusual weather was associated with last years storms. Miami-Dade also has the highest insurance claim rate of any city in the US. If you watch this story, you will see fraud is being implied by the news reports that are now coming out.

[Clemenza]

South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade) is a cess pool of corruption, both in terms of business dealings and politics. My parents are in Boca, which is the business fraud/chop shop capital of America.

I spent three years of my life in Miami (Doral area). My state Reps and State Senator were actually quite good (the latter was Rudy Garcia, who authored the bill banning late term abortions), but the morons on the County Commission were another matter. Even worse was the fact that the state's Attorney was Janet Reno protege Kathy Rundle.

[Clemenza]

BTW: For all the faults of the three counties in question, the true Armpit of Florida is Osceola County.

[devane617]

The FEMA director in Miami was interviewed and he appeared very nervous. They claimed that investigations into fraud was starting. When confronted with the charges of fraud that director was not willing to comment.

[devane617]

I read recently that the Haitian communities main source of income is insurance fraud in Miami-Dade.

[Clemenza]

The Haitians in South Florida are notorious for insurance fraud. If you take a look at the list of individuals prosecuted for insurance fraud in Palm Beach County (per article in Palm Beach Post), you will see mostly French names. I can guarantee you that those are not Parisians.

[JoeFromSidney]

When my house was flooded, FEMA offered me a low-interest LOAN. I didn't bother applying. Paying back the loan with interest would have cost me more than just repairing the damage.

Maybe if I'd been smart I'd have taken the loan and put the money in a CD paying more than the rate FEMA was charging. I didn't think of that at the time.

[OneTimeLurker]

This kind of fraud is to be expected. Because it was a battle ground state the President told them to turn on the spigot and I am sure that little effort was directed at qualifying requests for aid.