6 Years Later, Katrina Victims Fight FEMA Debts

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by ABC News

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency mailed out 83,000 debt notices this year to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms, one of the letters showed up in David Bellinger's mailbox. Bellinger, who is blind, needed a friend to read it and break the news that FEMA wants him to pay back more than $3,200 in federal aid he received after Katrina.

"I nearly had a stroke," recalls the 63-year-old, who moved to Atlanta after the storm wrecked his New Orleans home. "I'm totally blind. I subsist entirely on a Social Security disability check. If I have to pay this money back, it would pretty much wipe out all the savings I have."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/y...debts-15246778

[aephi alum]

Link is broken ... but, yikes.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

Link is broken ... but, yikes.

Thanks. I think the same article is being used on every website.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ent/52252354/1

[PiKA2001]

I think FEMA is within right to go after these people. IF you defraud the IRS/HUD/SSA/VA/any Gov agency they'll go after you in a heartbeat to recover their money so why shouldn't FEMA? My only hope is that they concentrate on the legitimate fraudsters and leave the 63 year old blind man, and others who received accidental overpayments, alone.