FEMA Grant Recipients Must Keep Their Receipts

AURORA, Ill. – If you received money from FEMA to help recover from the April 16 to May 5 flooding, you must keep the receipts or bills for which the money was used for three years.

FEMA assistance must be used for eligible disaster expenses only, as identified in the approval letter from the agency. You must save documentation that demonstrates how the funds were used in meeting your disaster-related needs. Examples of proof of use include:

• Receipts for items purchased for home repair.
• Contractor invoices.
• Proof of hotel room charges if you received housing assistance.
• Rent payment receipts if you received housing assistance.
• Receipts for moving and storage expenses.
• Receipts for repairing or replacing personal property.

More information on FEMA programs for individuals and households can be found in the “Help After a Disaster” guide. The guide was mailed to each applicant, but also is available online at fema.gov/help-after-disaster.

Individuals can get status updates 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.

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 twitter.com/femaregion5, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at twitter.com/craigatfema. The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

Media Contact: 571-408-1835