In the midst of a national catastrophe, the city of Denton opened their borders and hearts to aid Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Now the city could be short $71,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency monies, but it is news city officials said they expected to hear.

A request was sent to FEMA for an estimated $150,000 in labor costs associated with the city's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. John Cabrales, Denton's public information officer, said the city is not planning to take legal action against the federal agency.

"Of that total, we think that approximately $79,000 will be reimbursed to us by FEMA," Cabrales said. "The remaining amount we feel we're not going to get reimbursed by FEMA because those costs were either administrative or they were regular times."

Euline Brock, Denton mayor, said the city is expecting reimbursement at a later date, but she is still concerned over the payment process.

"We had a lot of reversals and disappointments during this whole evacuation process with FEMA,"' Brock said.

In some circumstances, Brock said she would receive and forward e-mails from FEMA officials, and would receive other messages hours later informing her to discard previous e-mails.

"I'm pretty leery, because to have that experience day after day, of back-tracking and saying very different things, I always wanted to say 'show me the money,'" Brock said.

Dave Hurst, FEMA spokesperson, said the agency disburses the money to the state and the state administers the program.

"The fact that they received $79,000 and applied for $150,000 in reimbursement doesn't necessarily mean that they're not going to get the balance," Hurst said. "It just may be in another funding pipeline-this is not an unusual situation."

According to FEMA rules, the agency is only going to reimburse the city for overtime costs and not regular 40-hour workweeks for workers.

Cabrales said city officials are anticipating 100 percent reimbursement for equipment usage costs of an estimated $2,800, and material costs, purchased to help shelter evacuees, of up to $1,700. The city also projects full payment from FEMA on approximately $176,000 being spent through December to pay housing costs for the evacuees.

Brock said recovery efforts at the local and state level were extremely well organized, but FEMA was not.

"I know, generally speaking, people have not been pleased with the response of reimbursement in other cities and initiates," she said. "FEMA did not do as well with coordinating-there was a break down in organization."

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