Corpse Gap

There are grave concerns over FEMA's funeral spending spree:

Florida officially recorded 123 fatalities from last year's hurricanes, but the federal government has paid funeral expenses for at least 315 deaths, including those of a man who shot himself and a stroke victim hospitalized more than a week before the last storm hit.

In one case, a Federal Emergency Management Agency worker tried unsuccessfully to persuade a coroner to count among the hurricane casualties a "morbidly obese" heart patient who purportedly was "scared to death."

"If you were to call around to all the medical examiner offices, people would say, `No way did we have as many deaths as FEMA is saying,'" said Dr. Stephen Nelson, head of Florida's Medical Examiners Commission. "It's just an incredible number -- a difference of 192. This is the Free Funeral Payment Act."

The discrepancy is even greater because the families of some victims counted as storm casualties by the medical examiner said they received no help from FEMA, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found in its continuing investigation of hurricane aid.

And, yes, FEMA paid for funerals of purported victims in Miami-Dade County, which was 100 miles south of Hurricane Frances, received no hurricane damage, and had no recorded hurricane deaths.

The Sun-Sentinel hit the mother lode with FEMA. The general nuttiness surrounding this fraud case, along with the staggering dollar amount, makes for fascinating reading.