WASHINGTON — In denouncing the way the Bush administration has denied aid to tens of thousands of victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a federal judge in Washington last week pulled back the curtain on a deeper mystery 15 months after the nation’s costliest natural disaster: What has happened to 2.6 million households that applied for disaster assistance but have been largely shed from the rolls? The numbers, recently disclosed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are striking. FEMA projects that fewer than 4,700 families will reach a $26,200 cap on all post-disaster aid by March, when an 18-month statutory cutoff takes effect — less than one-fourth of 1 percent. The figures are all the more surprising given the storms’ scope, the incomplete reconstruction of New Orleans and the demographic profile of evacuees, who tended to be poorer and less well-insured and to have higher jobless rates than other Americans. To anti-poverty advocates, FEMA’s policies, combined with inadequate computer systems and support staff, unfairly pushed thousands of disaster victims toward homelessness, slowed the recovery of New Orleans and saddled cities such as Houston and Austin with housing crises. The critics cite damning federal court findings, FEMA policy […]