More than $7.6 billion in aid towards NY’s recovery from Sandy

NEW YORK — The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration have approved more than $7.6 billion in direct assistance to homeowners, renters, businesses, government agencies and nonprofits that were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Individual Assistance

• More than $3.6 billion in National Flood Insurance Program payments made to policy holders
• Nearly $986 million in FEMA grants approved for individuals and households including:
  • More than $843 million for housing assistance
  • More than $142 million for other needs assistance
• More than $1.5 billion in SBA disaster loans approved for homeowners, renters and businesses

Public Assistance

• More than $1.5 billion in Public Assistance grants to reimburse local, state and tribal governments and eligible private nonprofits for some of the costs of:
  • Emergency response
  • Debris removal
  • Repairing or rebuilding damaged public facilities
• 5.6 million cubic yards of debris removed

Other assistance

• 272,070 people registered for assistance in the 13 designated counties
• 184,725 housing inspections completed
• 183,145 visits to disaster recovery centers

Sandy survivors should stay in touch and notify FEMA when they receive their insurance settlement, need to update their address or other contact information, or have any questions regarding their application.

Applicants may call FEMA’s Helpline at 800-621-3362 (Voice, 7-1-1/Relay) or

TTY 800-462-7585 to update FEMA. The toll-free telephone numbers operate 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. EDT, seven days a week.

Individuals can also check the status of their application at DisasterAssistance.gov or via smartphone or tablet at m.fema.gov.

For information about New York State recovery programs, visit www.NYSandyHelp.ny.gov or call 855-NYS-SANDY. The phone line is available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends.

For more information on New York’s disaster recovery, visit fema.gov/SandyNY, twitter.com/FEMASandy, facebook.com/FEMASandy and fema.gov/blog .