Aid requests for funeral expenses raise fraud fears
The chasm between the reported death toll and the soaring number of FEMA
claims has reignited questions about the agency's payment policies.

By JEREMY COX
November 10, 2005

Authorities have confirmed 35 deaths statewide related to Hurricane Wilma,
but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been flooded with at least
263 applications seeking aid for funeral expenses.

Of those applications, 230 streamed out of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm
Beach counties on the state's east coast within two weeks of Wilma's
passing. As of Wednesday, though, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
had attributed 20 fatalities to the storm in those three counties.

The chasm between the reported death toll and the soaring number of FEMA
claims has raised fraud fears and reignited questions about the agency's
payment policies.

"I think people know they can game the system if there are a lot of
applications flooding in," said U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Jupiter. "Simply
dying during the time of a storm doesn't entitle someone to a claim."



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