FEMA Extends Registration Deadline

AURORA, Ill. – FEMA has extended the registration deadline by 15 days to August 8, 2013. Affected residents of 35 counties covered in the Illinois disaster declaration for severe storms and flooding are encouraged to register with FEMA.

Federal assistance is only available for individuals who incurred damage in a designated county as a result of storms and flooding that occurred during the period of April 16 to May 5. If you incurred damage as a result of a storm that occurred before April 16 or after May 5, you are not eligible for assistance.  Registering for assistance for damages sustained as a result of a storm that occurred before April 16 or after May 5 could be considered fraudulent, and you could face recoupment of grant money you receive and/or fraud charges.   

Counties designated for individual assistance for this disaster declaration are: Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Clark, Cook, Crawford, DeKalb, Douglas, DuPage, Fulton, Grundy, Henderson, Henry, Kane, Kendall, Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Livingston, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McHenry, Peoria, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Schuyler, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago, and Woodford.

Individual Assistance for homeowners and renters can include grants to help pay for temporary rental assistance and other serious disaster-related expenses not met by insurance or other assistance programs. Assistance for homeowners also can include grants for home repair. Low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are available to cover residential and business losses not fully compensated by insurance.

Individuals affected by the storms and flooding that occurred in the designated counties during the period of April 16 to May 5 can register online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or via web-enabled phone at m.fema.gov.  Applicants may also call 800-621-3362 or (TTY) 800-462-7585.  People who use 711-Relay or Video Relay Services (VRS) can call 800-621-3362. For more information, visit the Illinois Disaster website www.fema.gov/disaster/4116.  Multilingual phone operators are available on the FEMA helpline. Choose Option 2 for Spanish and Option 3 for other languages.

SBA low-interest disaster loans may be available for homeowners, renters, businesses and private non-profit organizations of all sizes to repair or replace real estate, contents and/or personal property damaged in the severe storms and flooding. Information and assistance from SBA is available at 1-800-659-2955, (TTY) 1-800-877-8339 or online at www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.

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.

Follow FEMA online at www.twitter.com/femaregion5, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema. The social media links provided are for reference only.  

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Media Contact: 571-408-1835