Nashville, Tenn. - Hundreds of homes were damaged when a line of tornadoes crossed through middle and west Tennessee in December. Many residents had no choice but to find temporary housing. If your contact information has changed since you applied for FEMA assistance, be sure to update your file. Also, let FEMA know if you’ve received any information regarding your insurance claim. FEMA may need to contact you, and missing or wrong information could delay the agency’s ability to provide assistance.
There are several ways to update your application:
* Login to your online account at DisasterAssistance.gov.
* Use the FEMA app, which can be easily downloaded to a smartphone, or
* Call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. Specialists are available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time, seven days a week. Multilingual services are available.
If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others:
* Update the "Current Phone" field using the relay service phone number
* Add "Relay Service" to the Note box; provide FEMA with your number.
You can use these same resources to apply for FEMA assistance, if you haven’t done so already. Residents of Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Gibson, Henderson, Henry, Lake, Obion, Stewart, Sumner, Weakley and Wilson counties have until Tuesday, March 15, to apply. You may be referred to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) afterward.
The SBA offers low-interest disaster loans for businesses, homeowners and renters. Currently, interest rates for physical loss loans are as low as 1.38% for homeowners and renters. For businesses, it’s at 2.830% and for nonprofits it’s 1.875%.
For more information on Tennessee’s disaster recovery, visit www.tn.gov/tema.html and www.fema.gov/disaster/4637. You may also follow FEMA on www.facebook.com/fema and Twitter@FEMARegion4.
Source: Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency
