FOIA Request Reveals FEMA's Egregious Million Dollar Spending On A Floating Hotel … As Hurricane Victims Suffered

A FOIA request tipped off to Activist Post revealed a $74.7 million contract with Carnival Corporation, a cruise liner to host aid workers and first responders in the U.S. Virgin Islands on a “floatable hotel” after hurricanes Irma and Maria last year. Meanwhile, reported in the same week, a Harvard study revealed the death toll after hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was almost 5,000 people.

The company failed to host less than half the workers it agreed to and was paid far more money during the contract than the victims of the storm were given to rebuild their houses.

According to a report from WLRN:

As outlined in the contract, the company was to house 2,056 FEMA workers and other first responders for the length of the contract. The average number of nightly passengers for the contract window was only 799.5.

Taxpayers footed the cruise ship bill to a tune of $834 per person per night, equal to a rate of $5,959 per person per week, according to a spreadsheet of the daily passenger count and the contract itself, obtained from Freedom of Information Act requests.
Further, the ship only hosted the contracted number of people for a single day over the 112-day span of the agreement. That date was October 29, 2017, when the ship hosted 2,078 guests, according to WLRN.

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