Flood victims: FEMA falls short

GOFFSTOWN – Hit by devastating flooding twice in one year, residents of the Lynchville and Danis parks neighborhood find themselves sinking deeper into debt and increasingly disappointed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Faced with bills for repairs that in some cases are double their yearly income, many people here say financial aid from FEMA has been negligible to nonexistent while it took months and sometimes legal action to get insurance companies to compensate them for their losses.

Forced to live elsewhere for nine months, Nancy Congdon had to gut the first floor of her 9 Sonny Ave. home and raise it above flood levels.  Everything included, she estimates the May storm last year has cost her roughly $130,000.

Through her flood insurance, she got $30,000.  The U.S. Small Business Administration lent her $27,000.  Congdon also borrowed some money from her parents and maxed out all of her credit cards.  FEMA gave her $600.

She was told by FEMA officials that she did not sustain enough damage to qualify for more aid.

"I'm in debt up to my eyeballs because of this," Congdon said.

One reason residents say the did not receive more was because they had flood insurance.  But getting money from insurance companies has been a challenge of its own.

"It's a vicious cycle," Kelly Herod, of 140 Danis Park, said.  "You fight for every nickle you get from flood insurance."  Last May, her insurance company told her she was eligible for $9,000.  Her damage, on the other hand, was in the range of $60,000.  After she hired a public adjuster to work with the company, she eventually got $24,000.  That was last December.

FEMA, meanwhile, sent her a check for $1,000 for rental assistance.  Herod said that wasn't enough to pay for one month's rent for her and her family to live in Manchester.  If she needed more for rent, Herod was told she would have to re-apply for another $1,000 every month.

"I tried to return it and they said keep it," Herod said.  "I still have it. I didn;t use it for anything."

Marty Bahamonde, a regional spokesman for FEMA, said such frustration with his agency is rooted in a misconception about its mission.  The task of FEMA, he said, is not to be a backup for flood insurance.

"FEMA is not designed to take people's damage and replace their damage so they're whole again," he said.

Instead, when it comes to helping individual homeowners, he said the main goal of the federal agency is making sure disaster victims find temporary housing that is safe and sanitary.  People who qualify for rental assistance, he said, can receive it up to 18 months after a disaster.

Other aid is available, he said, for home repairs that are less than $10,000 and other needs such as doctor bills and car payments.  The most anybody could ever get from FEMA, according to Bahamonde, is capped at $28,200.

Back in Goffstown, residents affected by the flood are convinced that FEMA could do more to help them, given how much more it has spent - or misspent - on other disasters.

Last summer, the Associated Press reported that the agency has paid out $1.4 billion in fraudulent claims after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"They mismanaged the money and now New Hampshire is paying the price," Herod said.