CHARLESTON, W.Va. — FEMA Deputy Disaster Recovery Manager James Young is encouraging people still needing disaster assistance from the mid-April storms that hit 11 counties across West Virginia to register if they haven’t yet done so as the deadline is quickly approaching.
The deadline to receive disaster assistance for home repairs and personal needs following those storms, floods, and landslides which occurred April 11 and 12 is this Saturday, November 2. It’s meant to support residents among the hardest hit areas from the storm in Boone, Hancock, Kanawha, Marshall, Ohio, Roane, Wetzel, and Wood counties.
“Really what we’re trying to do is encourage everyone who may be eligible who had any type of damage from that storm to register so they can get any type of assistance that is available to them, because once the deadline passes, time is up,” said Young.
However, Young said if someone has already registered when the deadline arrives and is waiting for their application to be processed, it will still be processed regardless, and they will still be able to receive assistance if eligible, despite being on the deadline.
FEMA Disaster Recovery Center
Young said FEMA will have been going around door-to-door providing assistance to residents and have had Disaster Recovery Centers open for a total of 120 days following the storms when it’s all said and done.
More than $2.8 million in assistance from the April 11 and 12 storms will have gone directly to victims, to date.
Overall, including the storms which brought about tornadoes earlier in April, more than $10.6 million has gone to assisting survivors.
Young said FEMA’s disaster assistance teams try to bring a community-approach to every disaster they respond to, working with local governments, other government agencies, and non-profit organizations to do what they can to help victims get their lives back.
“Knowing FEMA does play a part in that, but you have non-profit organizations, the private sector and others who really contribute, so it has been a great opportunity to work across the state and help those in their greatest time of need, that’s really what we’re here for and that’s what calls most people into the work,” he said.
He said in addition to providing assistance to residents, they work with local governments to help fix infrastructure such as roads and sewer systems that have been impacted by the storms as well.
Like with many disasters, Young said the team here began to discover that more and more damages were being tacked on to what had already been known from the April storms as Boone County came as a late addition when residents there started calling for help.
“We initially started with ten counties and then due to the impact they found in Boone kind of after the fact, it was added on,” said Young. “Traditionally, it’s about a 60-day process or deadline to register, but this one it was 120 days, because they asked for more time.”
Young said 2024 has been a very eventful year as far as weather goes and West Virginia was no exception, from tornadoes to flooding, the state got hit hard this year.
He said following the storms in the state, it has also been a very disastrous hurricane season this year that has affected the entire southeastern United States, from Category 5 Hurricane Helene which made landfall in late September and caused record-breaking destruction and fatalities, particularly to western North Carolina, to another category 5 hurricane, Beryl before that in July.
Despite those disasters, however, Young said they really didn’t have an impact on the work FEMA has been doing here in West Virginia as there’s a full-time team, including himself who live in the state.
He said the year-round team here did, in addition to helping West Virginians, get the opportunity to expand their assistance elsewhere though.
“It certainly hasn’t taken anything away from what we’re doing here, but at the same time, it has given us the opportunity to help across state lines in some ways and send staff down south when we can, and you know, when we have the free resources to do so,” Young said.
There are three ways residents can still apply for disaster assistance before the Nov. 2 deadline:
o Visit DisasterAssistance.gov
o Download the FEMA app
o Call the FEMA help line at 800–621-3362, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., daily
Applicants can qualify for rental assistance, basic repairs, personal property losses and other eligible expenses related to damage from the disaster.
In addition, Saturday is also the final deadline to apply for a U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan as well. Applicants for that can apply online at sba.gov/disaster, call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955, or email [email protected] for more information on SBA disaster assistance.