After reading Module 6 lesson, I found the section on flood insurance really interesting. I have a family friend who still hasn’t been able to rebuild her house after hurricane sandy for this reason. I found a New York Times article about how a New Jersey Representative is citing fraud against FEMA. This happened just a couple of months ago in April, and there has been a call for a congressional investigation into the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood insurance program. They are alleging wrongdoing by the agency and stating that they have prevented thousands of victims of Hurricane Sandy from receiving proper payout to rebuild. There have been whistle blowers from FEMA stating that there have been doctored engineering reports for homes, “I have seen doctored adjusters reports with my own eyes, where an adjuster wrote something was caused by flood and somebody else inserted the word ‘not’ caused by flood” (Huetteman, 2016). Many people working at FEMA who were helping in the Sandy review process left because it was a sham.  The article also states that about 142,000 homeowners filed claims with FEMA after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the New York region.

While reading this article, it made me sick. The survivors of Hurricane Sandy have been through enough, and all they want to do it go on with their lives. Through the lesson, it also brought up the notion of relocating. If there has been fraud, and it has taken this long for people to receive their insurance money, it brings up a good question, should people just move. Like the lesson said, sometimes its hard to find a place to relocate, because of the rising sea level factors happening globally. This was a very touching article and the combination of this and the lesson, it gave me a new found appreciation for not living in coastal areas.

 

Huetteman, E. (2016, April 28). New Jersey Representative, Citing Fraud, Calls on Congress to Investigate FEMA. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/nyregion/new-jersey-congressman-citing-fraud-calls-on-congress-to-investigate-fema.html