Tell Your Employees To Register With FEMA; One Week Left

TRENTON, N.J.–New Jersey businesses are encouraged to ensure that their employees who had damages from Superstorm Sandy register for disaster assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency by the deadline, May 1, 2013.

Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, which represents 21,000 companies and employs more than one million workers statewide, said, “We want to get the word out to your employees. That’s why NJBIA joins with FEMA to encourage employers to make sure any of your employees impacted by Sandy register by May 1.”

All residents also are reminded that there is just one week left to register for FEMA disaster assistance.

As of April 21, approximately 260,200 New Jersey survivors have applied for FEMA assistance. FEMA encourages all individuals who were affected by Superstorm Sandy that have not applied for disaster assistance to do so by May 1.

How to Register

Individuals and households may register by calling the toll-free registration number at 800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY 800-462-7585. Individuals also can apply for disaster assistance online at DisasterAssistance.gov.

Registration usually takes between 15 and 20 minutes.

Officials want to encourage those residents who may be hesitant to register for disaster assistance. Federal taxes are appropriated specifically to fund disaster assistance. Also, the assistance one individual may receive will not take away from another applicant’s federal assistance funds.

Individual Assistance

FEMA Housing Assistance grants cover rental assistance, home repairs and replacement of essential household items not covered by insurance. The objective is to make damaged dwellings safe, sanitary and functional. Other Needs Assistance grants may be available to replace personal property and help meet medical, dental, funeral, transportation and other serious disaster-related needs not covered by insurance or other federal, state and charitable-aid programs.

As of April 21, more than $387.4 million in grants have been approved for home repairs or replacement, rental assistance and other needs.

SBA Loans

May 1 also is the deadline to return applications to the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBA offers low-interest disaster loans to homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and private nonprofit organizations for losses not fully covered by insurance. The SBA may lend up to $200,000 to repair or replace homes and up to $40,000 to repair or replace personal property. Also, up to $2 million is available for businesses for their uncompensated disaster losses.

For more information about the SBA, call the SBA Customer Service Center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EDT) Monday through Friday, at 1-800-659-2955. Survivors may apply online at disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. Applicants also may visit the SBA Web site at sba.gov/services/disasterassistance or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.

As of April 21, $731 million in SBA low-interest disaster loans have been approved for more than 11,300 homes and businesses.

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.fema.gov/blog, www.twitter.com/fema, 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. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.