The Federal Emergency Management Agency is asking thousands of Americans who were victims of natural disasters to return more than $22 million in government aid, acknowledging it mistakenly made payments to many people who were ineligible.
FEMA is required by law to recover improperly spent money, but most of the people who were helped say they used the cash years ago, and they don’t want to be financially punished because of the agency’s errors.
“It literally felt like everything is being taken away from me again,” said Justin Van Fleet, a 28-year-old call- center worker who got more than $20,000 from FEMA after a 2008 flood destroyed his home. “It’s like going through the flood again.”
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that FEMA is seeking payments from more than 5,500 people who were affected by 129 separate disasters since 2005, including floods, tornados, hurricanes and other calamities. The agency is still reviewing records, and more repayment requests could go out soon, including to victims of Hurricane Ka trina. The Associated Press
