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Explanation of Federal Disaster Assistance |
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Understanding the types of assistance available after a presidential disaster declaration is often bewildering. The following information attempts to provide a simplified explanation of how disaster assistance is administered to individuals and families. First, everyone who has damage should call 1-800-462-9029 to register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by the registration deadline (June 30, 2001 for the Nisqually Earthquake). If you do not make the call, you will not get federal assistance. A FEMA inspector will then schedule an inspection of your property. It is important that you show all of the damage to the inspector and ensure they note the damages on the inspection report. Most of the decisions made in reference to grant awards are based on the inspector’s report. Four avenues of assistance are available to individuals who register with FEMA. These assistance programs are delivered in the following sequence:
Private Insurance. If you have hazard insurance (in the case of the Nisqually earthquake – earthquake insurance), you must use your insurance benefits first. If your earthquake policy has a large deductible, federal disaster assistance can help fill the gap provided your loss fits into one of the categories described below. You will need to let FEMA know when your insurance claim is settled so that your claim can be restarted in the computerized management system. If you do not have hazard insurance, this step is skipped in the sequence of delivery. FEMA Disaster Housing Assistance. After settling with your insurance company (if applicable), you are then considered for housing assistance under the FEMA Housing Grant Program. The kind of assistance you get will vary somewhat depending on if you own or rent your home. For homeowners, a FEMA Housing Assistance Grant is most often given for rental assistance or for minimal repairs to make the home habitable. When damages to your home exceed $10,000, you are normally given a grant for rental assistance. The intent is to take care of your immediate housing needs while you seek funding to rebuild or replace your home. If uninsured damages to essential areas of your home are greater than $100 but less than $10,000, you will be considered for a grant to help in making the minimal repairs necessary to make the home safe and livable. Grant awards are based on national cost estimates supplied by Marshall & Swift, national building cost estimator, and are non-negotiable, even if they differ from your local contractor’s estimate. Awards are made for the damaged area only. For example, if a portion of your kitchen floor is damaged, you will receive a grant for the amount estimated by the FEMA inspector to fix the damaged area only, and not the entire kitchen floor. If you rent, and your rental home is declared uninhabitable by the FEMA inspector, you are eligible for rental assistance only. Small Business Administration. Once your immediate housing needs are taken care of, you are referred to the SBA for a disaster loan to take care of damages not covered by insurance or the disaster housing grant. If eligible, you will be given a low interest loan to cover your disaster related needs. If the SBA finds you are not eligible, your case is sent on to the Individual and Family Grant (IFG) program. Individual and Family Grant. This program, administered by the state of Washington, may provide assistance when you are unable to meet your disaster-related necessary expenses or serious needs through any of the other programs. Under federal law, damages must exceed $201 (as estimated by the FEMA inspector) to be eligible for coverage. To be eligible for a grant award, damages must be disaster-related, and you must have necessary expenses or serious needs. Generally, this means the items are necessary and essential for your safety, security, and sanitary needs. Eligible damages are reported on the FEMA inspector’s report as either destroyed or repairable. The award for a destroyed item is based on the sum necessary to replace the item with a reasonably priced like item. For example, if your $250 microwave is destroyed (assuming you have only one), the predetermined grant award to replace this item is currently $96. While you cannot buy a fancy microwave for $96, you should be able to buy a small microwave that will meet your essential need. In this case, if your microwave was the only item destroyed, the IFG caseworker will deny the grant because the damage is below the $201 minimum. Grant awards for repair of damaged goods will never be more than 50 percent of the replacement value for the eligible item. Sometimes, IFG will request a contractor’s estimate of the cost of repair. It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide this estimate to the IFG program before an award is made. Luxury and non-essential items, such as VCRs, stereos, jewelry, etc, are not eligible. The amount awarded for each eligible item was established before the disaster and is universally standard throughout the state. The maximum grant that can be awarded in the IFG program is $14,400. In summary, several important things determine whether you get assistance:
The intent of Congress in passing the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, was to assist disaster victims with their necessary and essential needs to be safe, secure, and sanitary following a declared disaster. It was not the intent of Congress to pay for all disaster damages, or to return victims to their pre-disaster state. Standards for administering the program are set in law. The people that process cases do not make up the rules, they simply follow them, and everything they do is double-checked for accuracy. For detailed information on disaster assistance, consult the Code of Federal Regulations Title 44, Emergency Management and Assistance, Part 206 – Federal Disaster Assistance for Disasters Declared on or After November 23, 1988. For those who have exhausted aid through the federal system of disaster grants and loans, there may be additional help through the American Red Cross Additional Assistance Program (1-800-660-4124) and the Washington Faith Based Earthquake Recovery Project (1-888-707-1200). We encourage you to contact either of these agencies for additional assistance with your disaster-related needs. One final thought – the appropriate insurance policy is the only real way to protect yourself from a catastrophic financial loss due to a disaster. The absolute maximum you could ever get in grants from the government to help in a disaster is $24,400. This amount will not even begin to cover your losses in a catastrophic disaster. For additional information, contact John Vollmer, Deputy State Coordinating Officer for Individual Assistance at 360-596-3303. |