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Real Estate Speculators Are Swooping In to Buy Disaster-Hit Homes


“We buy homes” companies are procuring disaster-damaged properties for cheap. Survivors say they’re taking advantage of tragedy.

Samantha Montano, a professor of emergency management and author of the book Disasterology, spent years living and working in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and saw it happen with her own eyes. But even with a robust volunteer network,$30 million from an NFL settlement redirected toward tornado relief, and FEMA aid ( slowly) arriving, homeowners have been left in the lurch for months, facing a difficult decision about how—or even whether—to rebuild. Talking on the phone between orders of fish, fried okra, and potato salad at his restaurant, Ozell’s Kitchen and Food Mart, DeAmon White reflected on the past few months.

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