Survivors of storms that pounded several U.S. states say the nation's disaster aid system is broken and want reforms to get money into victims' hands faster, with less red tape:
“If all these things had been steps instead of missteps, I could have been home years ago,” he said. “You’ve got different systems that are all butting heads and blaming the other side, when the homeowners and families that all of this was designed for are suffering.”
The survivors and their advocates listed five reforms they say are needed to help future storm victims avoid the type of delays, runarounds and financial desperation they experienced: getting money into people's hands more quickly; ensuring that disaster recovery systems are applied equitably; making flood insurance work for storm victims instead of against them; including future storm resiliency into disaster recovery efforts; and ensuring that disaster recovery is systematic, not...
Specific recommendations call for a single point of application for the numerous local, state and federal assistance programs; imposing a smaller cap on annual flood insurance premium rate increases; giving storm victims direct payments and health insurance for a period after the storm; restructuring loan repayment or aid overpayment “clawbacks” to take into account a storm survivor's ability to pay; and paying 100% of mitigation costs upfront for low-income storm victims instead of...