BATON ROUGE, La.— FEMA is providing disaster assistance registration materials at more than 40 hotels currently serving as emergency shelters in areas of Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Laura.
Resources in several languages are being delivered by FEMA’s Disaster Survivor Assistance teams. They provide information to survivors on several easy ways they can register for disaster assistance right from the hotel by:
- Going online to DisasterAssistance.gov
- Using the FEMA app
- Calling 800-621-3362 (FEMA) or TTY 800-462-7585 for the speech- and hearing- impaired. Those who use 711-Relay or Video Relay Services may call 800-621-3362. The toll-free telephone lines operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. CDT, seven days a week.
The DSA hotel outreach effort is a health and safety response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In past disaster responses, DSA has offered door-to-door outreach and registration help to impacted residents and businesses.
Assistance for homeowners and renters can include grants for rent, temporary housing and home repairs to their primary residence, as well as for other serious disaster-related needs such as medical and dental expenses or funeral and burial costs.
Low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration also may be available to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster. For more information, applicants may contact SBA’s Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center by calling 800-659-2955, emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov, or visiting SBA’s website at SBA.gov/disaster. Those who use TTY may call 800-877-8339.
As of Sept. 2, federal disaster assistance is authorized for residents in Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Grant, Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Lincoln, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Rapides, Sabine, Vermilion, Vernon and Winn parishes. Additional parishes may be designated for assistance in the coming weeks.
For the latest information on Hurricane Laura, visit www.fema.gov/disaster/4559.