The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is working in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the state. The organization announced it is reimbursing four towns more than $8 million for the clean-up process — Plainfield, Manalapan, Little Silver and Keansburg. Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer Bill Vogel told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that FEMA has sufficient funds to take care of the needs of the Garden State and will stay until the job is complete.
FEMA has separate assistance programs for private individuals and public communities. The individual assistance program is activated when a person calls and registers with FEMA by calling 800-621-3362 or registering online at disasterassistance.gov. After registration, an inspector will contact the registrant and come to see their house and its damage. FEMA then settles with the homeowner after the insurance claim is taken care of. With the public assistance program, Vogel said FEMA identifies communities with the worst damage and reimburse them up to 75 percent of the cost they spent directly related to the storm.
Vogel said the money will be available for the Garden State. “We have sufficient funding in place in order to be able to take care of all the needs in New Jersey,” he said.
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So far, Vogel said a quarter of a billion dollars has been granted to individual families. “We have somewhere around 49,000 families who have been approved for federal assistance and we will continue to see numbers increase as we stay and assist in New Jersey,” he said.
Vogel said the recovery will take a significant amount of time. “Think about the amount of debris that people are pulling out of the homes that were affected. And many of the homes were boarded up for the winter and people won’t be back until later on. We still have areas where it’s impossible for people to get in to even start taking care of that damage so it will be a significant period of time,” he said. “But rest assured that FEMA will be with New Jersey just as long as it takes in order to be able to be sure you’ve got every penny for which you’re entitled.”
Concern in Hoboken centers around residents who live in basement apartments. Their homes may be considered basements instead of apartments and receive less aid than others. Vogel said FEMA inspects every home that was damaged in a storm. “If that home has got any way we can assess any eligibility within that structure, we will certainly make sure that we take care of that,” he said. “If people feel as if they have not gotten the proper inspection, if they call us again, we will certainly send people out there to take a second look. But we’ll do everything we can in order to help.”
Housing for residents whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy is a priority. Vogel said Fort Monmouth is expected to have one building modified to have 45 apartments available for storm victims. He said if the need increases, FEMA has the ability to add on additional facilities.
FEMA also looks for rental options in local communities to house storm victims. “Of course we really like to have these rental resources that are available in the community so that we can put money and dollars right back into the community that has suffered,” Vogel said. “So far we’re looking for those facilities. We have found a large number of them and we’ll continue to work with the local officials and identify places that are available for those people who are in the transitional sheltering program to rent.”
After a storm like Hurricane Sandy, FEMA will make recommendations for new baseline elevations to help prevent catastrophic damage in the future. While the recommendations would need to be adopted by local officials who make the final decisions, Vogel said, “The recommendations certainly would help make those structures stronger.”