FEMA gives away Katrina victims' goods

NEW ORLEANS, June 11 (UPI) -- About $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims was given away by the U.S. government, an investigation found.

CNN reported that among agencies that received goods intended for the 2005 storm victims were the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Postal Service.

The goods, which included housewares and beds, sat in government warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency's giveaway to various federal and state agencies this year.

FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material, and another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so "we needed to vacate them," FEMA spokesman James McIntyre told CNN.

Some of the items given away were donations from companies after Katrina, but most were purchased as starter kits for people living in trailers provided by the agency, CNN reported.

Martha Kegel, the head of a New Orleans non-profit agency that helps find homes for those still displaced by the storm, said she was shocked to learn about the giveaway.

"These are exactly the items that we are desperately seeking donations of right now -- basic kitchen household supplies," said Kegel, executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans.