Katrina $700M missing

Warren Schexnader stands on the steps of his old home in front of another destroyed home, right, and the FEMA trailer in which he was living, left, June 8, 2007, in New Orleans

Katrina $700M Missing - A new inspector general’s report found that about $700 million awarded to help Hurricane Katrina victims fortify their homes from future floods is unaccounted for, which Congressional leaders say is a troubling sign of the need for tighter controls as Superstorm Sandy rebuilding efforts intensify this spring.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is pressing the state of Louisiana to recover the money given to homeowners to elevate their houses. But David Montoya, the inspector general of the agency, told ABC News that the likelihood of reclaiming the money was “slim, at best.”

“We have $700 million that we can’t account for and that certainly did not go to elevating homes and preventing future damage from storms,” Montoya said in an interview in his office in Washington.

“This is money we can’t afford to lose. This is money that we don’t get back and this is money that we can’t put toward other disaster victims.”

The cases of government waste and fraud have steadily piled up since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005. Federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges in New Orleans, including one instance last week in which a New Orleans woman pleaded guilty to making false statements after taking government grants and failing to fix her home.