FEMA Approves More For Charity Hospital
Let me see if I have this right. The state of Louisiana had asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for $492 million to rebuild Charity Hospital. FEMA said basically, “well how does $23 million sound?” As you might expect the State was not happy. So years after Katrina hit FEMA has said they’ll give the state $150 million. Now I am no expert at negotiations, but who, you would have think the State could have least got something like half, or $247 million of what they asked for.
After years of haggling with state officials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced late Friday that it has approved $150 million for hurricane-related damage to Charity Hospital. The amount is far less than the $492 million that the state claims the damage is worth but considerably more than the $23 million that FEMA previously had said it was willing to pay.Rather than bring the long-running dispute to an end, FEMA’s announcement merely moves the issue to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
