The administrator of donations for survivors and family members of the Orlando nightclub shooting said on Thursday the fund has reached $23m.
A gunman, Omar Mateen, opened fire at the Pulse nightclub on 12 June. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 injured in the worst mass shooting in modern US history. Mateen, whose motives remain the subject of investigation and speculation, was killed in a shootout with police.
The Amway Center, home of the Orlando NBA team, hosted the first of two meetings about how the money will be distributed. Addressing the meeting, the administrator, Ken Feinberg, said no amount of money would be adequate for what victims have suffered. The exact amount each family or survivor will get will be determined by how much is raised by next month, when the distribution will start.
Feinberg is a Washington-based lawyer who has become a specialist in managing the distribution of funds raised as compensation for survivors and family members of those killed in traumatic public events, a complicated process that involves determining the level of trauma suffered by each claimant and apportioning payments accordingly.
Among the events on which he has worked are the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and mass shootings at Virginia Tech and in Aurora, Colorado. In March, the justice department named him as the head of a congressional fund for the victims of terrorism.
In 2013, as Feinberg worked on distributing funds to those suffering from trauma inflicted by the Boston Marathon bombing, he told the Guardian: “It’s harrowing. It’s very emotional and very traumatic. It has to be done, I want to hear what people have to say, but you have to brace yourself for a very difficult couple of hours.
“Unless you have a heart of stone, you can’t help being adversely impacted by hearing people express their anger, frustration, disappointment, concern about the uncertainty of life.”
In Orlando on Thursday, Feinberg said all of the money raised would go to survivors and family members of those who died, since the administrators of the fund are donating their time and work.
In his Guardian interview in 2013, he said: “It is an amazing thing, the charitable impulse of the American people. The nation rallies around people in times of horror and tragedy and comes to the rescue. It’s astounding to me.”
