Survivors of two Gulf Coast hurricanes may be spared from repaying disaster assistance funds that were improperly disbursed, according to a new plan announced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In early January, six years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrecked the Gulf Coast, FEMA sent notices to some 90,000 aid recipients announcing its intent to recoup about $4,622 per individual. Those funds were distributed in excess of the planned aid packages, due to an administrative error.

One of those recipients was David Bellinger, a 63-year-old legally blind man, who moved to Atlanta after the storm leveled his New Orleans home. Bellinger told BlackAmericaWeb.com that he “nearly had a stroke” when he received his $3,200 bill, with 30 days to pay.

“I’m totally blind; I subsist entirely on a Social Security disability check,” he said. “If I have to pay this money back, it would pretty much wipe out all the savings I have.”

Beginning the week of Feb. 13, FEMA will send letters to Bellinger and other affected individuals and families informing them they may be eligible for a waiver. They must respond within 60 days to request a waiver and certify that they meet the criteria, including need, household income and appropriate use of funds. 

“We’re committed to implementing this law to the fullest extent possible and to offer a fair resolution to survivors who received improper payments through no fault of their own,” said Beth Zimmerman, associate deputy administrator for FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, in a video on the agency’s website.

“I commend FEMA for moving swiftly and aggressively to implement a plan that will allow eligible disaster victims to apply for a refund or cancellation of their debt,” said U.S. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.), who was instrumental in passing legislation to effect the waiver. “This announcement will bring great relief to many honest disaster survivors who never intended to misuse funds or take anything to which they were not entitled. To have forced people who experienced great tragedy to pay large sums of money back to the government because of someone else’s mistake would have been incredibly unfair.” 

The Disaster Assistance Recoupment Fairness Act, which was authored by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and co-sponsored by Landrieu and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), also includes a provision that nullifies a waiver for debt that involves fraud.
‘
The bill will not only alleviate undue financial stress from hurricane survivors, but is also a boon for the government, Cochran said.
“The 2005 hurricane season was unprecedented in terms of the damage and chaos it caused along the Gulf Coast, but its magnitude also overwhelmed our government’s systems for distributing aid,” he said in a statement. “It simply doesn’t make sense for the government to come knocking on the doors of struggling American families, sometimes more than six years after it mistakenly provided aid, and demand the assistance be repaid.” 

For more information about the waiver program, including eligibility requirements, visit www.fema.gov/debtwaiver/ or call 1-800-816-1122.