FEMA is now apparently creating bogus maps to justify wasting $30 million in disaster assistance paid to Miami-Dade County residents who were nowhere near Hurricane Frances:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency misrepresented weather data it used this week to justify $30 million in disaster assistance paid to Miami-Dade County residents, according to the government scientists who developed the information.

In a phone conference with reporters Monday, FEMA officials said they had found no evidence of widespread fraud in Miami-Dade and were confident in the legitimacy of the Hurricane Frances claims. As proof, FEMA cited wind speeds of up to 85 mph “in the parts of Miami-Dade County that received our assistance,” according to a statement from Daniel Craig, recovery division director.

FEMA backed up its statement by releasing a wind map of the Labor Day storm, citing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Research Center as its source.

But NOAA spokeswoman Donna McCaskill told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “We didn’t make this map. It looks like some of [NOAA's] data might have been misrepresented in it.”

(Hat tip: Florida Cracker.)