Tropical Storm Ernesto dumped plenty of rain on Florida as it moved across the state earlier this week. It didn’t do much widespread damage, other than knocking down a few trees and flooding some streets. That was a relief to federal and state emergency authorities who were on standby in case the storm intensified.

Federal response to hurricanes is the subject of an investigative documentary that airs tonight at 9-30 on WGCU-Television. For 15 months, a team of reporters and editors at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale detailed FEMA’s handling of the 2004 hurricane season. What they found was that the agency wouldn’t be ready to handle a major disaster. Something that became apparent after Hurricane Katrina last year.

Joe Demma is the Sun-Sentinel’s investigations editor. He tells
W-G-C-U’s Russell Lewis that FEMA awarded more than a half-BILLION dollars after the 2004 season to people who had little or no hardship.