First Payments Going to NFIP Policyholders in Hurricane Sandy Claims Review

The first payments are being made to policyholders taking part in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hurricane Sandy Claims Review, the agency announced today.

The payments represent additional funds owed to National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policyholders who filed flood insurance claims after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“We want to ensure our policyholders are paid what they are owed under their policies. This claims review gives us a chance to take another look,” said Roy Wright, Deputy Associate Administrator for FEMA’s Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration. “I encourage policyholders to request a review if they believe their Hurricane Sandy claim was underpaid for any reason.”

In May 2015, FEMA began contacting 142,000 NFIP policyholders who filed claims resulting from Hurricane Sandy, offering to review their claim files. To date, more than 10,000 policyholders have entered the process. FEMA authorized the insurance companies writing NFIP policies to make the first additional payments to policyholders whose claims have been reviewed through this process.

The deadline to request a review is Sept. 15, 2015. After initial request, the entire process usually takes around 90 days to complete.

To be eligible for the review, policyholders must have experienced flood damage between Oct. 27, 2012 and Nov. 6, 2012 as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Policyholders may call the NFIP’s Hurricane Sandy claims center at 866-337-4262 to request a review. Before contacting the claims center, policyholders are asked to have their flood insurance carrier name and policy number at hand.

Alternately, policyholders can go online to download a form requesting a review. The downloaded form may be filled out and emailed to FEMA-sandyclaimsreview@fema.dhs.gov to start the review process. 

For individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and use 711 or VRS, please call 866-337-4262.  For individuals using a TTY, please call 800-462-7585 to begin the review process.

The Sandy claims review process is designed to be simple for the policyholder, and does not require paid legal assistance. Several nonprofit service providers are ready to offer free advice and answer questions policyholders may have. A list of these advocacy groups can be found on the claims review web page.

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.

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