Storm Survivors Can Register for Assistance Online 24/7; No Change to Holiday Hours for Phone Lines

NORTH LITTLE ROCK – Residents of nine Arkansas counties included in a federal disaster declaration can register for assistance anytime online. Recovery officials also announced phone lines will maintain regular hours during the July 4 holiday weekend.

Those affected by severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, and flooding May 7 to June 15, 2015 in Crawford, Garland, Howard, Jefferson, Little River, Miller, Perry, Sebastian, and Sevier counties may be eligible for assistance.

Individuals and business owners can register online, 24/7 at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or with any web-enabled mobile device, tablet or smartphone at m.fema.gov. Follow the link to “Apply Online for FEMA Assistance.”

FEMA’s toll-free telephone line, 1-800-621-3362 (FEMA), will remain open through the holiday, with no change in hours.  The lines are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. (local time) seven days a week until further notice. Multilingual operators are available.

Disaster assistance applicants, who have a speech disability or hearing loss and use TTY, should call 1-800-462-7585 directly; for those who use 711 or Video Relay Service (VRS), call 1-800-621-3362.  

Disaster recovery assistance is available without regard to race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency or economic status.  If you or someone you know has been discriminated against, call FEMA toll-free at 800-621-3362. For TTY, call 800-462-7585.

The SBA is the federal government’s primary source of money for the rebuilding of disaster-damaged private property. SBA helps businesses of all sizes, private non-profit organizations, homeowners and renters fund repairs or rebuilding efforts and cover the cost of replacing lost or disaster-damaged personal property. These disaster loans cover losses not fully compensated by insurance or other recoveries and do not duplicate benefits of other agencies or organizations. For more information, applicants may contact SBA’s Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center by calling (800) 659-2955, emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov, or visiting SBA’s website at www.sba.gov/disaster. Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals may call (800) 877-8339.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.