The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has disaster survivor assistance crews available in Macomb and Mason County this week to help flood victims register for federal assistance.
Mirenda Grant of FEMA said people can register on the web, over the phone, or in person. She has talked with people who say they didn’t know help was available to them.
“Once they’ve found out that were are here, that’s when they take the initiative and give us a call,” said Grant.
The assistance will help qualified applicants pay for some of the damages done to their homes and to personal items. Medical and dental damage could be covered as well if they were results of the disaster.
This coverage applies to homeowners and renters. Spokeswoman Marquita Hynes said, for example, college students living in a rental home can apply for FEMA assistance.
“If the renter had some personal property that was damaged, or let’s say the renter had to move out of the dwelling and stay in a hotel and use his or her own funds, that could be something FEMA could provide assistance for,” Hynes said.
McDonough County Emergency Services Disaster Agency (ESDA) Director Dan Kreps said he found that more than 300 addresses had been affected by the flooding. He said some homes sustained cosmetic damage, while others had issues with their furnaces and electrical systems.
Kreps set up data centers in the early days of the flooding to find out how many people were affected. His intention was to have as many flood victims as possible come in and register. He hoped the large numbers would show FEMA that McDonough County needed assistance. However, Kreps wants to stress a very important point about the centers.
"I want to make sure that people are aware that if they came and signed up for those data centers at that point, that does not count them towards registering towards FEMA themselves,” Kreps said.
Details about the FEMA assistance centers follows:
McDonough County
McDonough County Health Department
505 E. Jackson St.
Macomb, IL 61455
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Saturday, June 8.
Mason County
Bath Village Offices
205 E. First St.
Bath, IL 62617
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Thursday, June 6.
