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FEMA Disaster Relief Issue

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What is the name of your state? Florida.

This is a FEMA question, not exactly an insurance issue but I could not find any place else on the Forum for it. Our home was extensively damaged by Hurricane Dennis and FEMA came into the area with an army of people and have set up a disaster relief center and held a lot of press conferences but seem to be of little actual help.

At FEMA’s urging we filed an application for assistance, FEMA inspectors came out to our home twice and spent a lot of time with us. They also got the SBA involved who sent someone out. Our home is quite badly damaged and not inhabitable. The SBA person estimated our loss at $185,000. FEMA on the other hand gave us a grant of $322 for “rebuilding”, we were told that we did not qualify for housing assistance as we evacuated the home the night before the Hurricane (July 10), and our county was not declared a disaster area for 2 more days (July 12) so since we were not actually living in the home when the disaster was belatedly declared we do not qualify. The only reason we were not in the home was the destruction done by the storm.

My question is what if anything could or should we do to see if we are not eligible for more FEMA assistance. The $322 check came with a brief and uninformative letter, no explanation as to what the rationale behind this figure was. We do have insurance (flood and wind) that will cover some of our losses and we are not destitute, but we have taken a serious loss. It looks to me like FEMA has invested a lot of their time and labor in our case, but with little benefit to us. If $322 was all we were going to qualify for you would think someone could have told us this in the beginning and rather than wasting time dealing with these people we could have gotten on with picking up the pieces. Any advice would be appreciated.

Rob
 


Aaronsmom

Member
alligatorob said:
What is the name of your state? Florida.

This is a FEMA question, not exactly an insurance issue but I could not find any place else on the Forum for it. Our home was extensively damaged by Hurricane Dennis and FEMA came into the area with an army of people and have set up a disaster relief center and held a lot of press conferences but seem to be of little actual help.

At FEMA’s urging we filed an application for assistance, FEMA inspectors came out to our home twice and spent a lot of time with us. They also got the SBA involved who sent someone out. Our home is quite badly damaged and not inhabitable. The SBA person estimated our loss at $185,000. FEMA on the other hand gave us a grant of $322 for “rebuilding”, we were told that we did not qualify for housing assistance as we evacuated the home the night before the Hurricane (July 10), and our county was not declared a disaster area for 2 more days (July 12) so since we were not actually living in the home when the disaster was belatedly declared we do not qualify. The only reason we were not in the home was the destruction done by the storm.

My question is what if anything could or should we do to see if we are not eligible for more FEMA assistance. The $322 check came with a brief and uninformative letter, no explanation as to what the rationale behind this figure was. We do have insurance (flood and wind) that will cover some of our losses and we are not destitute, but we have taken a serious loss. It looks to me like FEMA has invested a lot of their time and labor in our case, but with little benefit to us. If $322 was all we were going to qualify for you would think someone could have told us this in the beginning and rather than wasting time dealing with these people we could have gotten on with picking up the pieces. Any advice would be appreciated.

Rob

Rob, you should call the FEMA 800 number and speak with an associate to help you with your questions. Being a victim of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and a recipient of FEMA assistance, I know that not much can be done for people that are insured as FEMA is designed for people who have no insurance or to cover funds until your insurance kicks in. However, as I mentioned above, a FEMA associate will be best to answer your questions.
Good Luck.
Sarah
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I am not a licensed Attorney and do not claim to be. All information provided is mearly opinion and should not be construed as legal advice.
 
Thanks for the reply, but I have spoken to several FEMA associates and found it to be pretty much a waste of time. If the question is anything outside of their limited script of canned answers they seem to know little or nothing. The last one I spoke to suggested that I hang up and call back to get another associate who might know more.......
 

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