Dec. 16--Just 1 in 6 cases in the Sandy Claims Review process have been decided, despite assurances that victims of superstorm Sandy wouldn't be subjected to another drawn-out struggle over flood insurance.
More than 200 days have passed since FEMA debuted a system by which superstorm Sandy victims who thought they were shortchanged by their flood insurer could receive additional money. A total of 18,540 policyholders across the Sandy-affected region signed up.
The agency's top brass promised that the process would take no more than 90 days to generate an answer and a check, if one was warranted.
So far, 594 policyholders have been paid out, according to the newest figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nearly 14,000 policyholders are still having their cases examined, even though the official deadline to apply was two months ago.
The numbers on the Sandy Claims Review, as of Dec. 11:
* 16,661 claim requests were confirmed to be eligible for review;
* 2,694 of those have since been closed;
* 594 of the closed reviews have been sent a check for additional payment
* $9,698,118 has been paid out, or an average of $16,327 per claim
FEMA, which backs nearly all residential flood insurance in the country, announced in March an unprecedented review process for as many as 142,000 claims filed after Sandy.
After a 30-day extension to try and boost low enrollment, the program closed to new applicants on October 15.
The man who developed the review process, Brad Kieserman, told Congress in June that the agency would "conclude most reviews within 90 days of the policyholder requesting the review." Days later, he resigned his post to accept a position with the American Red Cross.
Sandy victims regularly cite low payments from flood insurance as a significant obstacle to rebuilding their homes.
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