What do I do first?
How do I register with FEMA?
How do I get help with cleanup?
How do I know my house is clean?
I can’t afford to repair my house…
What’s a RAFT form?
What is Case Management?
What’s a Point System?
Where does the money come from?
What is an Unmet Needs Committee?
What are “unmet needs”?
How will my house be rebuilt?
A new “normal”?
What do I do first?
- First of all, take a
deep breath. There is help available.
- Take pictures of the
damage if possible
- Register with FEMA as
soon as possible
- Call the LDR Volunteer
Center at 1-800-366-9841
How
do I register for FEMA?
Call 1-800-621-FEMA
or TTY
1-800-462-7585, or go online at
www.disasterassistance.gov. Operators
are available daily from 7 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Central time (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Mountain).
1.
Social
Security Number
·
You will be asked to
provide your social security number; if you are registering for a business, your
tax ID number should be provided. If you do not have a social security number,
your household may still be able to receive assistance if there is a minor child
in the household who is a U.S. Citizen, Non-Citizen National, or Qualified Alien
with a social security number. (NOTE: If you, your spouse or a minor child in
the household who is a U.S. Citizen, Non-Citizen National, or a Qualified Alien
does not have a social security number, FEMA will not be able to complete a
registration. If you do not have your or your spouse's social security number at
this time, please call back. The Social Security number is required for Identity
Verification purposes.)
2.
Insurance
information
·
You will be asked to
identify the type(s) of insurance coverage you have.
3.
Financial
information
·
You will be asked to
enter your family's gross total household income at the time of the disaster.
4.
Contact
information
·
Along with the address
and phone number where the damages occurred, you will be asked for information
on how FEMA can contact you. It is very important that you provide FEMA with
your current mailing address and phone numbers where you can be contacted.
5.
Electronic
Funds Transfer (EFT) Direct Deposit Information (optional)
·
If you are determined
to be eligible for assistance and would prefer that funds be transferred to your
account, you will be asked for your banking information, which includes; the
institution name, type of account, routing and account number.
How do I get help with cleanup?
Call the LDR Volunteer
Center at 1-800-366-9841 or email
LDRvolunteer@lssnd.org to register
your cleanup needs.
Oftentimes, it is necessary
to remove paneling/sheetrock/insulation to stop the mold from growing behind the
scenes. You don’t have to know how much of the wall needs to be removed when
you call, just approximately how much water you had in that area. Simply call
us and we will ask questions to help determine your entire cleanup needs.
Volunteers are able to do various levels of cleanup and we want to match as
closely as possible your needs to their skills.
How
do I know my house is clean?
If the area remains damp,
the threat of mold increases and this could pose a medical problem. Sanitizing
the area that had flood water on it will decrease this threat. Remove all
debris and scrub the area with detergent first. Using a solution of 1 part
bleach to 10 parts of water (approximately 1½ cup of bleach to 1 gallon of
water), spray on area and let air dry. You could use a spray bottle or on large
areas, a clean handheld weed sprayer works well. Do not rebuild until the
wooden structures (studs) are dry. The dryness should be checked with a
moisture meter. If the moisture level is too high and you rebuild, you will
probably end up removing all the new rebuild because mold will grow on the moist
studs.
I
can’t afford to repair my house…
Once you have worked with
FEMA, SBA, and insurance, you may have some disaster-caused unmet needs such as
no money for hiring someone to repair your home. If the part that needs
repair/rebuilding is essential living space, you should fill out a RAFT Form.
What’s
a RAFT form?
A RAFT form is the entry
into the Case Management system where additional help may be available. RAFT
stands for Resource Agencies Flood Team. The team is comprised of several
agencies doing case management on behalf of those impacted by the disaster.
Case managers may be connected with the United Methodist Church, Red Cross,
United Way, Lutheran Disaster Response, the Salvation Army and perhaps others.
Together, they form the RAFT team so the case manager assigned to you will
assist you through the rest of the process. This means you don’t have to go
from agency-to-agency to get additional help or the best deal – one form will
get you “into the system”!
What
is Case Management?
Case management is a term
used to describe the process your request for help moves through.
When you fill out a RAFT
form and mail it to the appropriate address, it is reviewed to see that your
request is for disaster-caused needs. If so, your application is assigned to a
case manager who will work with you to make your house safe, sanitary and secure
for essential living space. The Case Manager may be your advocate to FEMA for
additional funding, connects with local programs that may help such as the
weatherization program through Community Action, or using a point system, will
take your needs (anonymously) to a Local Unmet Needs Committee for consideration
of funding request.
What’s
a Point System?
A Point System has been
established for equitable consideration of needs. For example, if you are
elderly, that may be worth 1 point. Points are available for various things
such as disabled, degree of damage to the house, single parent and so on. Each
point then is assigned a dollar value. An example might be 1 point = $50.
Where
does the money come from?
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) will perhaps assist with furnace, hot water heater, and
electrical panel replacement. They may help with mitigation which
is changing something that will prevent future impacts.
Flood Insurance is a
federally subsidized insurance that
protects homeowners from any property damages due to flooding.
For example, if your walls are damaged, this may
provide funding to fix that.
Personal Insurance will
cover the contents of the house – having pictures of possessions prior to a
disaster will greatly help you in time of need. You may check with your
insurance agent about storing that information at their office.
Small Business
Administration (SBA) loans are part of the FEMA process. If offered to you, it
is essential that you fill this out or you may lose out on additional money that
may be available to you. If you are offered a loan, you can then decide whether
to accept all or part of it. If you are denied that loan, a grant may be
available to you instead. But, if you don’t fill it out, there is no hope of
any additional funding to help you through that process.
A Local Unmet Needs
Committee may also be a source of funding for unmet disaster-caused needs from
donations to a fund set up in the community. Access to this funding is only
through the Case Management system after all other resources are exhausted such
as FEMA, SBA, insurance and so on.
Other funding that may be
available is the ND Long Term Recovery fund that seeks donations from national
church bodies and local congregations. During the Spring 2009 disaster
aftermath, this fund will be used for those counties where no Unmet Needs
Committees are present.
What is an Unmet Needs Committee?
A Local Unmet Needs
Committee is comprised of trusted members of the community that will consider
the requests brought by the case manager on your behalf. These trusted members
of the community may include pastors or community leaders but never any
government entities. Your name is never given to this committee and your
identity is protected by using an assigned number instead. A summary of
financial information, damage, how many points you qualify for and the amount
requested is the only information shared with this committee. The case manager
supervisor will advocate on your behalf to this committee so the more
information you can provide the case manager regarding the damage and challenges
you are facing will be helpful in understanding your situation. The case
manager will not share information that could identify you to the committee.
What are “unmet needs”?
Unmet needs in the realm of
disaster response are needs that still remain after all other sources of
assistance have been exhausted. The needs that will be considered must have
resulted from the disaster and affecting essential living space.
How will my house be rebuilt?
Through the case management
process, your needs for rebuilding will identified. This process also includes
a visit to your house by someone trained in assessing disaster damage and
estimating what materials are needed and what tasks need to be done to complete
the repairs. This estimate of materials and cost is shared with the case
manager who then will identify where money for those materials will come from.
It may include assigning volunteers skilled in rebuild to complete the work.
A
new normal?
As much as our hearts would
like to “make things the way they were”, there simply isn’t enough funding and
volunteers for that. This means that spare bedrooms and non-essential living
areas such as a recreation room in the basement so the grandkids can play there
twice a year won’t be rebuild using this system. However, the case manager will
assist you in reaching a “new normal”. Things simply won’t be as they were
before, but it’s a start!
