The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "disaster assistance" ...
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Florida's Insurance Nightmare
Six years after eight hurricanes ripped across Florida, state residents still struggle to recover from the storms' legacy - a wrecked property insurance market. Exorbitant premiums, the highest in the world, have soured the state's struggling economy, killed real estate sales and forced families from their homes. Homeowners were told that unless they paid even more, no insurance company would take their hurricane risk. The Herald-Tribune showed that is a lie. Floridians have been lied to about why there is a crisis, where their money is going, and whether they're even protected against storm losses. Public policy has been corrupted by fiction spun by the insurance industry and its supposed regulators. Billions of dollars desperately needed for the next disaster have been siphoned offshore. And millions of homeowners are left to entrust their financial security on a system rigged to extort profit. To expose the hidden truth of Florida's insurance crisis, St. John cultivated key sources deep within every aspect of the insurance industry and sought massive amounts of financial and policy data from multiple state and national entities. When it became obvious Florida's crisis was manipulated from afar, she traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo to discover the hidden players truly in charge.
Tags: home insurance; property insurance; Florida; hurricane; real estate; insurance premiums; homeowners; Bermuda; Monte Carlo; state regulators; anti-trust law; State Farm
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World's Untold Stories: 25 Years After Midnight
25 years ago a documentary series traveled to Bhopal, a city which suffered the world’s worst industrial disaster that same day. This series focuses on Bhopal and what has changed and what hasn’t. Also, it looks at the lives of the survivors and many of them have given up their lives to speak out about the disaster. “Their experiences tell a story of survival, determination and hope-as they work to help the victims, and ensure that the world never forgets what happened there”.
Tags: India; chemicals; Union Carbide plant; pesticide; rights group; residents; town; environment; safety; medical; money; assistance
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Katrina Crime: Perceived or Real?
These stories showed that many months of steep declines in major violent crime in San Antonio ended within weeks of the arrival of Katrina evacuees and began a steady double digit climb in homicide, aggravated robbery and a variety of other violent crime categories. The stories pointed out that, while it was impossible to conclusively link crime to evacuees, this correlation was almost identical to that which was successfully cited by Houston in funding requests to FEMA and other agencies. The series identified crime hotspots in and around a number of resettlement areas and portrayed the feelings experiences of evacuees, native neighbors and business owners in these areas.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; evacuees; natural disaster; relief aid; FEMA; crime; crime data; mapping; homicide reports; computer-assisted reporting
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Peoria Selected Storm Ready
Okeson looked at how adequately Peoria County, Ill., was covered by tornado sirens. She found that the sirens covered census blocks for all but about 5,400 people in the country, or about three percent of Peoria County residents.
Tags: tornadoes; natural disasters; Peoria County; ArcGIS
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Unprepared
Reporters investigated the preparation of New York for a disaster on the scale of Hurricane Rita or Katrina. After conducting tests, the reporters found that 75 percent of the communities in their coverage zone were completely unprepared to deal with any kind of disaster.
Tags: Emergency Management Office; natural disasters; man-made disasters; disaster preparedness; emergency plans
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9/11 Money Trough
The series examined what happened to the $21.4 billion that President Bush promised to help New York City recover in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The results are disheartening, finding widespread waste, fraud and mismanagement.
Tags: terrorism; 9/11; fraud; Government Accountability Office; FEMA; Ground Zero; World Trade Center; Federal Aid; SBA disaster loans
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Hurricane Katrina Reporting Package
This package of investigative stories shows why so many things went wrong during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Time staff reported on FEMA Director Mike Brown, and how his general incompetence hurt relief efforts. The package also includes a look at New Orleans three months after the disaster to see how it recovery efforts were working.
Tags: New Orleans; hurricane; FEMA; disaster relief; weather; natural disasters; government
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Katrina Investigations
This series of investigations on the local and federal governments' response to Hurricane Katrina revealed numerous mistakes and inefficiencies at multiple levels. The investigation showed mismanagement of the levees, unused buses that could have been used for evacuation, botched supply shipments, corrupt contracting and port police's failure to rescue survivors.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; New Orleans; hurricane; levee; FEMA; Mike Brown; police; disaster assistance.
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Neediest slighted on storm loans
When tornadoes struck Fort Worth and destroyed many properties, President Clinton issued a disaster declaration. Fort Worth Star Telegram reporters find out who got the promised federal assistance and how much they received.
Tags: Storm loans; disaster; tornadoes
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Fertile for Fraud
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that "Farmers routinely collect federal insurance and disaster payments on crops prone to fail. In the process, taxpayers are stuck with a steep price tag for fraud and abuse - well over $100 million a year...(as result of) the failures of the federal government's system for managing agricultural risk; the system is easily corrupted and covers marginal farms, where crops fail year after year. Congress' decade-long expansion of the system has opened a Pandora's box of federal crop payments that defy common sense, waste hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars and subvert the honest living for which farmers are admired..."