FEMA seeks to withhold criteria used to determine Dolly aid

BROWNSVILLE — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is seeking to withhold criteria its inspectors used in deciding whether to award storm damage claims after Hurricane Dolly, saying it is not bound by federal law to disclose them.

Releasing those standards would limit the agency's discretion in deciding future cases and "dramatically change" the rules governing how it operates, the agency said in federal court filings.

FEMA's response comes more than two months after 14 low-income Rio Grande Valley residents sued the agency, questioning denial letters they received after applying for emergency assistance.

In each case, they were told their homes had sustained "insufficient damage" from the storm. And in several cases, FEMA blamed the hurricane damage on poor construction and maintenance before the storm.

A clear explanation of the criteria used to make those determinations could dispel suspicions that the agency is operating under an "institutionalized policy of discrimination against poor people," said Jerome Wesevich, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid who is representing the plaintiffs in the case.

"FEMA remains a black box that produces home repair assistance in some cases and not in others," Wesevich said. "This is the very definition of arbitrary."

FEMA has declined to comment on the lawsuit since its filing in November, saying only that the agency has granted more than $44 million in individual assistance to South Texas homeowners since Dolly swept through the region in July. But nearly 10,000 low-income Valley residents were denied federal aid.

In a motion filed with the court last week, the agency said inspectors had determined in many cases that Dolly was not the primary factor that made the applicant's home unsafe to live in. Federal law bars FEMA from improving homes beyond their pre-disaster conditions except if required to comply with state and local building codes.

"(They) have not produced any evidence to indicate that FEMA applied different standards to (them) than to others with a different economic status," the filings say.

But Francisca Perez, of Elsa, still can't imagine how anyone could say Dolly didn't damage her home.

A total of 2 inches of water flooded the structure, causing plumbing problems that sent raw sewage bubbling up through her toilet and bathtub.

For nearly two weeks, she had to clean the bathroom two to three times a day with bleach to eliminate the smell. Perez's daughter, who suffers from asthma, was hospitalized briefly because of the odors, she says.

With an annual income of less than $16,000, she still hasn't come up with the money to fix her bathroom. Now, more than six months after the storm, the family continues to use an outhouse erected outside of the home.

Cruz Alejandro Zamora, of Harlingen, was forced to move his wife and three children out of his Harlingen home after the storm for fear the bent walls and unstable foundation would collapse.

A disabled U.S. Army veteran, Zamora and his family now live in a travel trailer he financed through a credit card and parked on the side of his property.

"Their homes have been damaged by the storm and FEMA can't explain why they have been denied aid," Wesevich said.

U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle is expected to rule on whether the agency must hand over its criteria at an upcoming hearing. A date for that hearing has not yet been set.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.