In what state officials said was an unprecedented move to help those in need after the recent widespread power outages, more than 280,000 families in 34 Ohio counties received $10 million worth of additional food stamps from the federal government.

The state said it identified the 34 counties as the “hardest hit” by the high winds that pummeled Ohio on June 29. But a Hamilton JournalNews investigation shows that in the rush to provide timely assistance, officials used wildly inaccurate power outage data to award extra benefits in southwest Ohio.

If the state would have had access to the correct information, Montgomery County — where 50,100 families received $1.7 million worth of extra food stamps — would not have been eligible under federal criteria for the extra aid.

Meanwhile, Butler County opted out in part over concerns with the inaccurate information. As a result, the county awarded about $1,500 in aid to 55 families that asked for it.

They did this rather than take an estimated minimum of $642,000 that would have been awarded had it accepted the federal money.

The inaccuracies center around a map included in the state’s application for federal aid that showed six counties in southwest Ohio with power outages of 50 percent of all residents or greater as of 12:30 p.m. on July 1.

Clark County Director Bob Suver of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and others viewed those numbers skeptically.

“I didn’t understand how some of the counties that had the outages to be on that list, and some of my counterparts didn’t understand,” Suver said.

Hamilton County also turned down the money. After contacting Duke Energy, the county determined that the situation on the ground was not nearly as bad as the state’s assessment.

Using Ohio’s map, federal officials approved the extra benefits — roughly $34 per family — for all food stamp recipients in counties with outages of 30 percent or more.

However, information from Duke and DP&L obtained by the JournalNews shows that numbers in many counties using those electrical providers likely was actually closer to 10 percent, and almost certainly less than 30 percent.

The state originally requested assistance for citizens in counties in which 20 percent of customers were without power on July 1, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which ultimately released the funds, bumped the benchmark to 30 percent.

Joel Potts, executive director of the statewide association for county Job and Family Services directors, said it’s important for the government to have accurate data when making quick decisions.

“I’m really kind of torn right down the middle,” Potts said. “On the one hand, we were trying to respond to a crisis. Government constantly gets criticized for not being responsive enough, but when you respond quickly, you set yourself up ... for criticism if you don’t get it right.

“I think our counties made a good-faith effort to get help to victims of the storms. We’ll learn from this one and continue to make adjustments. Hopefully we’ll be better prepared for the next (wide-scale emergency).”

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services decided to issue a mass food stamp increase, as opposed to giving extra benefits only to those who lost power, so families could get the benefits quickly, spokesman Ben Johnson said in interviews and emails.

The state also wanted to avoid the long lines that formed at JFS agencies following Hurricane Ike in 2008. Shown the inaccurate data, Johnson said state officials used “the best information available” to determine which counties needed the money and defended his agency’s decisions.

“By doing this, we were able to disburse benefits less than a day after receiving the waiver (on July 5) from USDA and to provide assistance quickly, even in counties where the county JFS office had no power and was closed,” Johnson said.

‘Percentages are not completely accurate’

In its July 2 application to the federal government, the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services used a map generated by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency to show which counties had the worst power outages as of 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 1. But the map included a notation that “percentages are not completely accurate” because Duke Energy and DP&L didn’t provide their numbers of customers per county.

Without those numbers, it is unclear how the Ohio EMA calculated outages for these counties while making estimates of 50 percent or more for many. An agency spokeswoman said in an email that percentages shown on the map “ensures there were no underestimation of customers without power.”

Duke and DP&L provide much or most of the electricity in Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Greene, Hamilton, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties, all of which were deemed to be eligible for the extra food benefits.

But numbers from the power companies obtained by the JournalNews indicate many of those counties weren’t actually eligible.

As of 9 a.m. on July 1, only 20,000 Duke Energy customers in Ohio were without power, according to a message posted on an official Duke Energy Twitter account.

Butler, Champaign, Clermont, Hamilton and Miami, along with six other counties elsewhere in the state, turned down the federal money, opting instead to give out aid on a case-by-case basis to people who applied.

Butler County JFS Director Jerome Kearns said his decision proved to be the correct one. He called local power officials after seeing state figures showing Butler County having outages of greater than 50 percent. The real outage number was closer to 10 percent, he said.

As it turned out, only 55 families in Butler County requested more food assistance, he said.

“That’s out of the 48,000 people we have on food assistance,” he said. “I think the call we made was a good one.”

Had Butler County accepted the federal money, county residents there would have received at minimum $642,000 in extra benefits, and likely more, according to a newspaper estimate using information from other counties. Instead, Butler County awarded an estimated $1,500 in additional food stamps to people who asked for them.

In Hamilton County, which also opted out, as of last Wednesday only about 400 people made requests from a pool of 137,000 total families on food assistance, said Hamilton County JFS spokesman Brian Gregg.

“We met with Duke, we assessed our local need and we felt like we could handle it with our local money,” he said.

As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 30, 75,000 DP&L customers were without power, or 15 percent of the utility’s customers in 24 counties, according to a company spokeswoman. Even if all 75,000 customers still had no power the next afternoon — and all were in Montgomery County — it would have been a 28 percent outage, or less than the federal government’s 30 percent threshold for aid.

At 5 p.m. Sunday, only 28,000 DP&L customers were without power, or about 5 percent of the company’s customers.

DP&L has 259,882 customers in Montgomery County. To meet the federal government’s requirements for the aid, about 78,000 customers would have had to have been without power on July 1.

In an email, Montgomery County JFS spokeswoman Ann Stevens said her agency was grateful to receive the money to help struggling people: “The USDA at the federal level and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services determined that existing food assistance recipients in Montgomery County were eligible to receive the benefits,” she said.

Looking back

Suver of Clark County, which did not qualify for the federal money under what appears to be an accurate calculation, questioned the state’s decision to make the across-the-board award. Especially so considering that the high winds struck at end of June, when “the cupboards are already bare,” he said.

Food stamp recipients receive their benefits during the first week of each month. Ultimately, the benefits were issued nearly a week after the first windstorm ravaged Ohio, and came at the same time recipients’ July food stamp allotments were being distributed.

‘I think especially for it being a day away from the end of the allotment period ... I think it was a little overkill,” he said.

Potts of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors Association, said state officials basically hedged their bets in issuing a state-wide disbursement. Applying for mass-scale benefits would allow them to help the most people the quickest, even though some people who received benefits didn’t actually need it, he said.

Officials decided to provide recipients with 13.3 percent of their normal monthly allowance by considering that people likely did not lose an entire shopping trip worth of groceries, he said.

“How do you measure suffering and how do you measure need in that type of situation, where literally half the state was out of power?” Potts said. “ ... You’ve got very little time and you’re trying to figure out what’s in the best interest of the most people. It’s something that’s subject to debate for our policy makers.”

Warren County JFS opted to receive the money.

“It’s what the state chose to do and we do what the state chose to do — and yes, it definitely was beneficial to the ones who did have problems,” said director Doris Bishop.

Food stamp recipients in the 34 counties that received extra aid could still apply for more assistance if they needed it.

All told, Potts of the state JFS directors association, said he thinks state officials made the best decision they could given the circumstances.