Nona Simmons:  This is Nona Simmons with the Federal Emergency Management Agency here to get some answers to questions that have been asked by our citizens of West Virginia.  Mike Senycz, who is the Individual Assistance Branch Director at FEMA, is here to answer those questions.  Mike, why do some people with a little damage get more money than some people with a lot of damage.  And then how do you gauge this?

Mike Senycz:  Well Nona, all of our programs within Individual Assistance are based on eligibility.  There's a number of criteria that we use to base upon what an individual would receive.  One of these would be disaster related damages.  For you to receive additional funds from us they have to be caused by the disaster, in West Virginia it was caused by flooding, you would have to receive damages that were caused by that particular incident.  Another eligibility criteria we use is primary residence.  This has to be your formal residence where you live a majority of the year and can not be a particular secondary residence or rental home or somewhere where you don't live throughout the year.  Also another eligibility criteria is that you are a US citizen or qualified citizen.  Another item that we've encountered is also deferred maintenance.  That's something that was not disaster related and caused by not maintaining or up keeping the home, and those particular items would not be eligible for our program as well.  As mentioned those are our reasons for eligibility, how we gauge what you're eligible for is on our inspection process, and we have an inspector that comes out to your particular residence and will look at all the damages you receive from the storm and catalog those accordingly.  Depending on the amount of damages the inspector finds and your eligibility will determine what amount of assistance you receive.  

Nona Simmons:  Well now, if I find more damage after the registration period is closed can I still have a chance to claim these damages or do I have to file a new claim for these damages.  

Mike Senycz:  Well, first of all you have to make sure they're disaster related and that they occurred within the incident period.  For this particular event it was a course of storms over several weeks, and then we closed the incident period.  If damages occurred outside of the incident period, that's a separate incident, and therefore would not be eligible for additional assistance.  If they are occurring within the incident period and you may be eligible for additional assistance, and what you need to do is call the 1-800 FEMA number, 1-800-621-3362 to get another inspection.  You can request that.

Nona Simmons:  We've been talking with Mike Senycz who is the Individual Assistance Branch Director for FEMA, Mike thank you very much.  

Michael Senycz:  Thank you very much Nona for the opportunity to speak to you.