by the Way . . .

Russ Hayward, a panther fan, is a little irritated. The $2,358 check that arrived 38 days after Katrina nailed his trailer came without explanation, and only after he had spent it did a letter arrive advising it was for rental help. Now FEMA won't give him any more, so he and 12 other plaintiffs have joined a class action against FEMA. You know how most of the time you get a check in the mail the explanation is on the stub? Well, that wasn't possible here because the checks were sent by the Treasury Department and the explanations by FEMA. Further, FEMA was in charge of coordinating the effort to get them in the same envelope.

The NYT reported today that the case is likely to be one of many filed in the coming months, as civil rights lawyers are "providing legal assistance" throughout the Gulf Coast regarding housing, employment, voting rights, education, and environmental issues. A class action is a way of combining the claims of many plaintiffs in order to support adequate lawyer fees, either because each individual claim is likely to be small, or because you want a famous lawyer. While these suits will greatly increase the cost of Katrina, fortunately for the taxpayer it will all come out of the deficit, and can be passed on to future generations. For some, this has raised questions of why you had to be involved in a hurricane to get your share.

With all the FEMA rules it can be difficult to get your share even if you were involved. Take the case of Mr. Davis and his 12 siblings, as reported in the NYT. Several lived on and off in their mother's home, but FEMA only allows one assistance payment per house, and his brother already got it. The good news is that this could make a class action just within the family.