60% of Puerto Ricans denied FEMA help

Slate - In March, lawyers and community groups said that [FEMA] had denied about 60 percent of household applications in Puerto Rico, often because families could not prove ownership of their homes. FEMA’s denial rate for individual assistance is always high— about 30 percent of Texans were rejected for Harvey-related requests by January. But as of March, FEMA grant denials in Puerto Rico after Maria nearly double that number. In a series of interviews, lawyers and residents told me that FEMA presided over a poorly managed process that failed to account for the island’s unique customs.