Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

FEMA Offers Assistance To Residents

Anyone planning to get financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be ready to be on the phone for a while.

FEMA has an 800 number for under insured and uninsured homeowners, so they can get help for damage done to their homes because of the recent ice and snow storms. The assistance also includes damage to personal property, being unable to work and having to find a warm place to go.

FEMA is working under the Office of Control Management in this situation.

When first calling, the caller will most likely be greeted with a recording telling them because of the volume of calls they need to wait up to 15 minutes.

Once a live operator gets on the line, the caller will be answering questions for another 30 minutes, at the minimum.

To help speed up the process a little, all callers should have their social security number, date of birth, address, phone number, family income, any insurance information and a rough idea of the damage done, either to the home or personal property.

The FEMA representative will ask several questions to make sure the caller gets the help needed.

For housing problems, the Disaster Housing Program could pay for damage done to homes, or rent for the occupants while repairs are being made.

However, a FEMA representative will make an on-site visit within 7-10 days after application has been made for assistance. The homeowner or resident must be there at this time and have some proof of residence, such as a utility bill.

Homeowners will be referred to the Small Business Administration, which could provide a low-interest loan for repairs.

Those seeking help from FEMA will be sent an application from the SBA which must be filled out. However, homeowners are not required to accept the SBA loan, and could, instead, file for grant assistance to help them instead.

At this time, the SBA loans carry an interest rate of 3.7 percent with the first payment not due until five months after the loan has been approved.

The SBA will try and make the payments work within a family's budget, so as not to cause further financial hardship.

Regardless of whether the loan is accepted or not, those contacting FEMA for help must fill out the SBA loan packet.

All who seek help from FEMA will be given an application number, and this number, along with the applicant's social security number must be provided any time FEMA is contacted.

For more information write: FEMA, P.O. Box 10055, Hyattsville, MD 20782-7055.

There is also a toll-free number that can be called, 1-800-462-9029. FEMA's toll-free fax number is 1-800-827-8112.

Once an application has been made, FEMA's help line number is 1-800-525-0321. This number, though, should only be used when checking on the status of an application.