Katrina's Next News Cycle
This shoe was always going to drop eventually, it seems. If the federal government was incompetent in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it only makes sense that the money it's doled out is riddled with errors too. Reports the AP via the Cincy Enquirer:
In the neighborhood President Bush visited right after Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. government gave $84.5 million to more than 10,000 households. But Census figures show fewer than 8,000 homes existed there at the time.
Now the government wants back a lot of the money it disbursed across the region.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration has determined nearly 70,000 Louisiana households improperly received $309.1 million in grants, and officials acknowledge those numbers are likely to grow.
Check out Reason's special coverage of Katrina and the failure of public policy at local, state, and federal levels here.
And check out our recent story about how unconventional aid groups stepped in where the United Way and Red Cross feared to tread.
