FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
R2 –WEEKLY BULLETIN
Volume 1, Issue 7 February 27, 2009
MANAGING EXPECTIONS:
INDIVIDUAL ASSISTANCE
By Michael Beeman, Disaster Assistance Director
After a disaster strikes, the one thing most
people have in common is that they are holding on
to hope: Hope that they will be made whole
again; that life will return to the way it was before
their lives were torn apart; hope that someone will
come with the capability and the resources to put
them back the way they were.
The area where the challenges of managing
expectations most rapidly come into focus is
Individual Assistance and the programs available
to help out individuals and households impacted
by an event.
First and foremost, the public expectation that
we most often see following a disaster is that
FEMA will be able to provide whatever grants
money it takes to rebuild a home, restore
possessions, recover memories lost – to make a
family whole again. Our foremost challenge is
helping the general public understand that the
assistance available through the Stafford Act is
very limited.
It should not go unnoted that one of the other
great challenges in managing expectations is not
only the challenge of trying to bring expectations
down to the level of what can be provided under
the law, but conversely convincing individuals to
properly register, assuring themselves of a chance
of receiving assistance from those programs for
which they are eligible.
-Continued next page
TIP of the Week
LAPTOP PROBLEMS?
By Blaine Frank
IT Services Branch
Q: What happens when you change your password
at the office?
A: Your laptop will no longer connect to Outlook
or the H drive….
To update your laptop, do the following:
• Start your laptop and log onto Windows with
your old password.
• Connect to VPN using your current
password.
• After you are connect to VPN, hit Control-
Alt-Delete, and choose lock computer.
• Hit Control-Alt-Delete and unlock your
laptop with your current password.
Click on the r2logon icon on the desktop.
The logon script is complete when the black window
goes away.
When R2logon is completed you will then be
able to access your H drive and Microsoft Outlook.

THE EXTRA MILE
When the US Army Corp of Engineers
(USACE) completed the latest phase of the Green
Brook Flood Control Project last summer, more than
200 home owners in Bound Brook, NJ were
removed from the flood plain. The USACE changed
the “facts on the ground,” but it was up to home
owners to apply to FEMA to change the flood map.
Acquiring a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR)
is often laborious and time consuming, but thanks to
Region II Senior Engineer Paul Weberg, these
Bound Brook residents got their LOMR before the
first of the year, relieving them of even partial
payment of premiums that ran from $800 to $2,200.
Weberg walked the Bound Brook engineer
through the process, and made sure the
documentation was properly submitted, ultimately
calling the contractor for an expedited review.
,
FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN
I.A. EXPECTATIONS,
CONTINUED
In FY2009, the cap on what FEMA can
provide to any individual or household is $30,300
as total for all assistance through the agency’s
Individuals and Households Program (IHP).
Congress has given us the ability to provide this
total amount when warranted and eligibility has
been established.
The IA program also provides Mass Care
assistance (feeding, sheltering, bulk distribution
and emergency first aid); Emergency Assistance
(Mass Evacuation, Special Needs, family
reunification, household pets, donations, voluntary
agency coordination); Housing (Temp roof repair,
rental assistance, transportation to other locations,
hotel/motel program); and Human Services (Crisis
Counseling, ONA – other needs assistance, case
management, disaster unemployment, disaster
legal services).
By example, one of the signature IA programs
is home repair. On average the agency provides
in the range of $3,000 for repairs, and that funding
level is only to make a home habitable again.
Many individuals impacted by disaster are of the
mistaken belief that FEMA is an alternative to
adequate insurance. This is not the case, and it is
one of the primary reasons the agency pushes so
hard to have individuals carry the proper level of
flood insurance.
Additionally, all communities rely on the
assistance provided by private nonprofit
organizations for their recovery. Those
organizations work to help the significant number
of individuals who have unmet needs after all
options from federal and state assistance are
exhausted. 
RANDOM NOTES

Sixty local hires from DR-1798 in Puerto
Rico have been converted to Regional Disaster
Assistance Employees. The JFO for DR-1798
closed Friday.

The National Processing Service Center in
Puerto Rico shut down Friday, Feb. 27.

The transition form Citibank (MasterCard)
to JP Morgan Chase (Visa) as the issuer of FEMA
travel cards is near complete. Anyone who has
not yet received their new VISA card should
contact Yvonne Colon at 212.680.3645, or
Michele Sturman at 212.680.3682.
FACES OF REGION II
Ken Curtin is the Region’s Voluntary Agency
Liaison, which – he is quick to point out -- is both a
FEMA job title and an operational function. There
have been voluntary agency liaisons (with different
job titles) in Federal disaster offices long before
there was a FEMA.
That’s because the Voluntary Agency
Liaison (VAL) functions as a hub, providing
coordinative services with all disaster human
services agencies (both voluntary and
governmental), facilitating relief and recovery
program information among them. By explaining
FEMA and other government disaster programs to
voluntary agencies, he helps them avoid doing what
government already does, while focusing their efforts
on meeting needs the government cannot. By
passing on this information to their clients, voluntary
agencies become force extenders for FEMA, and
Ken is the one that deputizes them.
While VALs also support local and state
efforts, e.g., managing material donations,
spontaneous volunteers and cash donations,
perhaps it’s most important contribution is in the
formation of local, interagency Long-Term Recovery
Committees (LTRCs).
These collaborations, made up of faith,
community, charitable, governmental, and donor
organizations come together to form new, disasterspecific
organizations to address the substantial
unmet household needs that are beyond
government assistance. VALs help organize different
LTRCs in each declared county.
FEMA REGION II – WEEKLY BULLETIN