WASHINGTON — Anyone who has experienced a natural disaster and subsequently requested assistance from the federal government knows that it can be a lengthy, frustrating, and bureaucratic process. New rules announced Friday by the federal agency responsible for emergency management aim to simplify and speed up the process.
As natural disasters affect more and more people in the United States, insurance markets in many states are buckling under the weight of payouts to those affected by wildfires and hurricanes.
Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the changes are intended to make it easier for disaster survivors to get help — a challenge for those who often struggle to recover from the worst day of their lives .
“Mother Nature is not letting up,” Criswell told reporters on a call to announce the changes. “We need to be better prepared and better informed to recover faster and more effectively from natural disasters.”
Criswell described the changes as the “most comprehensive update to our individual aid program in two decades.” She said the changes were the result of a tremendous amount of feedback from survivors, disaster recovery organizations and elected officials.
Here are some of the changes outlined by FEMA:
Under previous rules, homeowners who received payments from their insurance company for home repairs, but not enough to cover all the damage, were essentially out of luck when it came to help from FEMA. Now those homeowners can turn to FEMA for help. Criswell gave an example of a homeowner who has $80,000 in damages but only receives $45,000 from the insurance company. Previously, FEMA could not help them because their insurance benefits already exceeded the agency’s assistance ceiling of $42,500 per disaster. Now that same homeowner can get money from the agency to make up the difference. The rule change comes at a time when homeowners in places like Louisiana, Florida and California are facing sky-high deductibles and battles with insurance companies over damage assessments that have made it difficult even for people with insurance to recover from hurricanes or wildfires.
Under previous rules, disaster survivors had to first apply for a loan from the Small Business Administration and be denied before they could apply for FEMA assistance. Criswell said survivors found the SBA application requirement “confusing and challenging,” so the agency is removing that requirement.
The organization has something called “critical needs assistance,” currently $750, that survivors can use for anything they need immediately after a disaster: baby formula or food, for example. But states or tribal nations had to specifically request this category of assistance, and that was done only on a case-by-case basis. Whenever a disaster is declared involving FEMA’s individual relief funding stream, those $750 payments will be available. Survivors are still required to apply and checks are being carried out to prevent fraud. But it ignores the application that states and tribal nations had to make. That doesn’t mean every disaster will include these payments. Many declared disasters have a more limited scope.
Disaster survivors with disabilities can use FEMA money to make changes to their homes to make them more accessible, whereas under previous rules the agency would only pay to rebuild things damaged during the disaster. People with pre-existing problems in their home, such as a leaky roof, can now get money from the agency to repair the house. Currently, the agency requires that if it gives people money to fix something, it must have worked before the disaster.
And FEMA is creating a new category of assistance, called displacement assistance, intended to help those who cannot return to their homes. It gives them money for housing while they look for a long-term rental and provides flexibility so they can, for example, use the money to pay a friend’s utilities if he crashes on the couch.
The new rules will come into effect on March 22. The changes are expected to cost $671 million a year, of which $159 million will be borne by the states and tribal nations where the disasters occur.
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