Public Records Free Directory Blog

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta handed down a federal court order in June forcing FEMA to provide address information of disaster aid recipients to four Florida newspapers that fought for this information for almost three years.  The court order covers 31 disaster events in 8 states from 1998 through 2004.  FEMA will notify disaster aid recipients by letter, and possibly by phone, that their address information will be released.  FEMA had fought to keep from releasing this information citing privacy laws.  The media pursued the information contending that it was necessary in order to determine if FEMA’s allocations were distributed fairly and to review for fraudulent claims.   A Sun-Sentinal editor blogged that their pursuit of the records was related to an investigation of ‘wasteful and fraudulent disbursements’ by FEMA, and that they had no intention of publishing personal information of legitimate claimants.    Also see the FEMA news release.