When evidence emerged that roughly 142,000 homeowners had been underpaid on legitimate insurance claims related to 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, FEMA administrators went to work correcting the damage.
Sending out notices to all claimants, the agency established a process by which Sandy victims could have their damages reevaluated – possibly for more insurance money. But many view the process as futile, mired by so much red tape that any benefits are negligible.
“This is the most panful thing I’ve ever done in my life,” William Lynch, an Iraq War veteran, told the New York Times. “I’d rather go back to Falluja.”
Lynch is joined by scores of other homeowners in his reluctance to reopen his claim. As a September 15 deadline draws near, just 11,000 eligible homeowners have taken FEMA up on its offer, citing slow-moving bureaucracy and distrust of the government.
Some victims’ advocates, like Senator Robert Menendez of New York, have publicly pleaded for the deadline to be extended another three months to give homeowners a chance to reconsider. Menendez also criticized FEMA for what he described as “halfhearted” efforts to reach out to homeowners, saying the agency was “still behind the curve due to a slow start in the initial days and weeks following the announcement.”
The revisiting of claims stems from allegations that insurance companies and engineering firms denied payments for legitimate claims in the aftermath of the storm by eliminating flooding as the cause of damage. The ensuing scandal has led prominent senators like Menendez, Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer to call for the elimination of the National Flood Insurance Program altogether.
FEMA has expressed sympathy for the position of homeowners, and promised to make improvements to the claims process.
“I’m sorry we’re at a point at which folks have had to come back,” said FEMA Deputy Associate Administrator for Insurance and Mitigation. “I absolutely empathize with the people on the ground who are trying to maneuver through a process like this. Perfection is not within my grasp, but I absolutely can and will change this customer experience.”
