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Thursday, March 5, 2015

Local Lawmakers call FEMA "dishonest"




FEMA ADMITS FRAUD

Homeowners like Sophia Vailakis-DeVirgilio of Broad Channel might do well to re-inspect flood damage reports made following Superstorm Sandy.  A new revelation by FEMA executive Brad Kieserman indicates that some reports were falsified or conducted by unlicensed engineers.
Homeowners like the DeVirgilio family of Broad Channel might do well to re-inspect flood damage reports made following Superstorm Sandy. A new revelation by FEMA executive Brad Kieserman indicates that some reports were falsified or conducted by unlicensed engineers.
Local lawmakers are calling the Federal Emergency Management Agency “dishonest” after an executive there admitted to having seen evidence of fraud in reports used to deny Sandy victims full insurance payouts.  Thousands of homeowners’ claims were denied after the hurricane hit in October of 2012.
FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, currently in debt to the U.S. Treasury by about $23 billion, oversees private insurance companies, which have been allegedly using engineers to create false reports and/or alter existing reports to indicate minimal or nonexistent Sandy storm damage.  In several cases, victims’ files contained initial reports concluding structural damage attributed to the hurricane.  Later reports show the damage was due to settling, soil erosion, or other conditions predating the storm, or simply, that (in the wake of the superstorm) no structural damage was present.
Brad Kieserman, FEMA’s Deputy Associate Administrator for Insurance, told 60 Minutes that, in addition to fraudulent flood damage reports, he’s also seen evidence that unlicensed engineers had been used to make the reports.  Kieserman told the correspondent that FEMA has been aware of the fraud, to at least some degree, since late 2013 and yet has done nothing about it.  Homeowners themselves and their lawyers brought the issue to light when they began to dispute the denied claims in court.  They scrutinized engineers’ reports, noticed alterations, and brought these discrepancies to the courts’ attention.  Insurance companies named as defendants in flood insurance lawsuits have their legal costs reimbursed by FEMA, hence the agency has been aware of the evidence provided in these cases of insurance companies’ or engineers’ wrongdoing.
Hundreds of flood damage reports were allegedly falsified, and both engineering firms and insurance companies are being investigated.  Those homeowners may now be entitled to additional payouts or court settlements.  According to Kieserman, though, current negotiations may not satisfy all the victims, because “the program was never designed to make everyone whole.”
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Broad Channel) announced this week that he will introduce state legislation creating the New York Flood Insurance Association, to provide homeowners with an alternative to rising federally-backed flood insurance premiums and to protect families from questionable flood damage claims practices.
State Senator Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) said, “My constituents, after dealing with the ravages of Superstorm Sandy, should not have to have dealt with dishonest FEMA personnel. It’s unacceptable to think that the initial federal agency that was to help my people after the storm, was actually another roadblock to full recovery. I’m calling upon our federal elected officials to investigate FEMA and help those individuals who were previously denied FEMA assistance.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio, too, expressed concern about the revelations.  “I think it would be particularly heinous if insurance companies took advantage of people who were hurting so much after Sandy,” he said.
By Eugénie Bisulco

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