WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency is expediting payments of as much as $26,200 to 60,000 residents affected by Hurricane Katrina.
While some homes in nine counties and parishes in Louisiana and Mississippi escaped serious damage, FEMA has decided not to wait for case-by-case inspections, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Who gets the money is based on satellite imagery of the worst flooding or wind damage, broken down by Zip code, where individual inspections have not been done. Officials estimate as many as 600,000 families require long-term housing.
So far, 2.8 million households have applied for federal aid from Katrina's devastation on Aug. 29 and from Hurricane Rita, which struck the Texas and Louisiana coast four weeks later.
FEMA said Friday its estimated cost in Louisiana alone would be $41.4 billion.
