Waiting on FEMA 100 days and counting
New mother desperate for FEMA aid fights "the daily runaround"
New mother desperate for FEMA aid fights "the daily runaround"
New mother desperate for FEMA aid fights "the daily runaround"
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 32,840 households in Terrebonne Parish are currently eligible for and/or have received recovery grants to cover damages caused by Hurricane Ida. But Houma homeowner Denise Dillion said none of that money has made it to her.
Dillion said she calls FEMA every day, but can't get a straight answer. She said she has sent multiple documents, gone to FEMA events and had three inspections, but so far has not received any federal aid.
Dillion’s trailer home was ripped in half during Hurricane Ida. She has to crawl onto the foundation to get inside, a dangling blue tarp covers the missing section of the home, and the roof leaks when it rains.
“I want FEMA to hear my cries,” Dillion said. “I have cried every night about this because I worked my entire young adult life for this trailer … I’m afraid that it could catch on fire. I’m also afraid that it will fall apart because half of it is gone and one of my main walls is disconnected from the floor.”
Dillion said several of her neighbors are also stuck in limbo, more than 100 days after Ida, waiting on adequate FEMA assistance.
“The max that they were giving some of my neighbors wasn’t even enough to buy another home, much less fix it,” Dillion said. “I have a neighbor on this side who was living in one bedroom — only one bedroom was standing. I have some people who lived in front of this yellow trailer — it was totally demolished to the floor like this. This is what it looked like the day of the hurricane - nothing. It was sad seeing these people come back here and pick out of their laundry and leave.”
FEMA media relations representative Kurt Pickering said the agency could not comment on individual claims, citing privacy laws.
“We should also point out that FEMA is not insurance, and our role is not to put things back the way they were,” Pickering wrote in a statement to WDSU. “Our role is to get the household into the recovery. For example, we do not cover repairing all the damage to a dwelling; we cover repairs necessary to make the dwelling safe, sanitary and fit to occupy.”
Pickering said anyone waiting on a pending claim should contact the agency if they have not received an update in two weeks.
FEMA can be reached at the registration telephone number, 800-621-3362, the DisasterAssistance.gov website, and the FEMA smartphone app. There are also currently two disaster recovery centers in Terrebonne Parish, one at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center and the other at the Montegut Recreation Center.
Dillion says each time she talks to a FEMA representative she gets a different answer with no solutions in sight. In the meantime, Dillion is living in a temporary trailer with her newborn son and partner. The trailer was donated by the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority.