The Flood Insurance Guru Podcast Episode 4: What Is Disaster Assistance?

It’s inevitable for our world to experience natural disasters. They’re part of the planet’s system and sadly, the impact of disasters can take a toll on every aspect of our living. However this doesn’t mean that you’ll have to accept defeat and go down with whatever valuables are affected. In times like this, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have developed the Disaster Assistance Program. What is it? What can it do for you? What benefits to individuals does it provide?

DISASTER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

Disaster Assistance is a program for financial help on those who experienced damages due to natural disasters. They can cover your personal, property, building, and even professional needs in a time of crisis like a major disaster. Disaster assistance is also efficient as they send a check by mail to your address or direct deposit for the money you will receive. Let's understand more on the program as we go all, but first thing's first, in order to avail this assistance, there must be a Presidential declaration for major disaster. To put it simply, your county, parish, local city, or community has to be under this Presidential declaration in order for Disaster Assistance to be available for you.

Let’s say your house was damaged and became unlivable, then Disaster Assistance can provide additional living expenses for up to 18 months as you temporarily live someplace else. While you’re away, it will also make your house livable again — this won’t make the house what it was before instead make the conditions livable.

Disaster Assistance also gives help to your professional life as they can provide assistance if your employment, be it a full-time employment or self-employment, was impacted negatively by a major disaster. This is good for those who weren't eligible for the regular unemployment benefits. This program also provides great benefits to individuals who lost their jobs as a direct result of a major disaster through what is called Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA).

DISASTER LOANS

Disaster assistance also means disaster loans. Disaster Loan is a loan program from the Small Business Administration (SBA) that FEMA administers. These loans can be up to $200,000 coverage, but this’ll be for certain things only like renovation of property and personal property loss. Disaster loans don’t mean that addition or upgrades will be included (better wave goodbye to your granite countertop plans for now). Disaster Assistance will only return what is already there before the flood.

Note that the loan is only available for areas with presidential declaration, where disaster assistance isn’t enough or they didn’t qualify for the disaster assistance since it’s income-based.

Also, it's important to know that this program can provide a maximum grant of $33,000 per household for Individual Assistance (IA) however you should also refrain from having two or more persons apply for the same disaster assistance with FEMA may be delayed if you have multiple persons applying for one household. One of you can withdraw the application — through FEMA Helpline (800-621-3362) — ensuring that your application will be processed.

These three (disaster assistance, disaster loans, and your flood insurance) can work together. No, it never meant that you can only get and enjoy one of them at a time. Disaster loans work by subtracting what you get from Disaster Assistance and your flood insurance. This means that  if you have $180,000, then you’ll only get $20,000 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) since they only cover up to $200,000.

Disaster Assistance may also cover what your flood insurance didn’t. In order to qualify, you must show that you either: didn’t have flood insurance, your claim was denied, or some form of a settlement check that shows that it just wasn’t enough. Some Disaster Assistance will also kick-in and cover even additional living expenses which the National Flood Insurance Program doesn’t cover. You should also give the Disaster Assistance additional time to process your grant, so patience must also be part of your planning.

Keep in mind that any of your property that's in a Special Flood Hazard zone can receive Disaster Assistance, but FEMA will require that you have flood insurance for the whole life of the property. Lastly, Disaster Assistance is only available for those with primary residence — your vacation home or rental house won’t be granted Disaster Assistance since they’re classified as secondary residence. This is where private flood insurance can come in handy.

Disasters are never predictable, so in times like this when crap happens, you want to make sure that you're prepared to be part of the repairs that you and your love ones need to get through such crisis.

Remember, we have an educational background on flood mitigation, so if you have more questions on Disaster Assistance Program, what to do in a flood-related disaster event, disaster assistance partners, availability of disaster assistance, flood risks, elevation certificates, or whatever you have in mind about flood, you are most welcome to contact us, check our flood educational videos on YouTube, or connect with us through our social media sites by clicking below: