The Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended the deadline for flood insurance policyholders to submit their Hurricane Sandy Claims for review. The last day to submit claims is now Oct. 15, 2015.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that any additional flood insurance proceeds up to $20,000 will not be treated as duplicative. Federal agencies cannot provide disaster assistance for losses covered by insurance. HUD’s announcement stated that “this will eliminate the need for HUD grantees to reclaim assistance from these households or to repay those funds through non-federal sources. To date, three out of four National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claimants have received less than $20,000 in additional compensation from FEMA and will not face any possible repayment.”

Roy Wright, FEMA’s Deputy Associate Administrator for Insurance and Mitigation, encouraged policyholders to call FEMA and request a review if they believe their claims were underpaid for any reason. As of Sept.14, nearly 14,000 policyholders have requested reviews of their Sandy flood insurance claims.

“FEMA remains committed to making sure that every policyholder gets every dollar they are owed under their flood insurance policy. Already, thousands of policyholders have contacted us to have their claims reviewed and we have begun providing funds to those who were due additional payments on their claim,” Wright said.

“We are hopeful that HUD’s action to provide relief to the vast majority of those who are concerned about potential duplicative benefits will encourage even more policyholders who may have been initially reluctant to enter the process to do so,” Wright said. “In light of HUD’s decision to simplify this review and provide relief, we are extending the claims review deadline until October 15th.  We hope by extending the deadline we are addressing any remaining concerns some may have about entering the claims review process. The review process we have established is designed to be simple, fair, and accessible without paid legal assistance. FEMA is dead set on restoring trust in this important program and no one should be discouraged from having their claim reviewed.”

Policyholders can call the NFIP’s Hurricane Sandy claims center at 866-337-4262 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), Monday through Friday to request a review.  It is important to have your policy number and insurance company name when you call.

Policyholders also can go online to www.fema.gov/hurricane-sandy-nfip-claims to download a form requesting a review. The downloaded form can be filled out and emailed to FEMA-sandyclaimsreview@fema.dhs.gov or faxed to 202-646-7970 to begin 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.     

###

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.