LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Western Kentucky tornado victims know how difficult it can sometimes be to get help quickly.
FEMA staff continue to say that financial aid is coming, even more than we’ve seen in Western Kentucky.
In the first month after the disaster, the group has approved aid to about 6,500 people, nearly three times the number of families that received funding from FEMA after the western Kentucky tornado.
“It’s the geography, it’s the infrastructure there and its supporting elements, sometimes it’s not that important to ask to go from one disaster to the next. That’s why it’s very difficult, sometimes it seems slow, just because we’re working with Survivors meet and try to get our program and other federal agency programs to help them get started quickly,” explained FEMA’s Brett Howard. “Western Kentucky was a wind event. There was a flood event in eastern Kentucky. Usually what you find, what we’re really finding in Western Kentucky is that most homeowners are insured for wind-related losses and in Western Kentucky The state has a lot of insurance, and in Eastern Kentucky, you have flood events. Flood insurance is usually not included in homeowners’ insurance policies, so there’s not much coverage. You see a big difference in the numbers.”
WKYT withdrew the data – there was also a wide variation in the number of homeowners who withdrew their applications. In Western Kentucky, 44 percent of claims were withdrawn, duplicated, or not responded to FEMA’s follow-up and its initial filing.
“In Western Kentucky, their insurance covers their needs. It covers their needs, so they don’t have any FEMA or other federal agencies to help them, so they drop out. When we contact homeowners or survivors for housing With appraisals, home inspections, and losses when we’re told ‘I never called you’, we often find more than we hoped. Why are you here?’ So we’re having more problems than we’d like A lot,” Howard pointed out.
Thirty-five percent of applications in Western Kentucky were denied because they were in undesignated counties or because FEMA staff referred them elsewhere. FEMA works with the Small Business Administration, USDA, and HUD to help victims.
Eastern Kentucky is still evaluating claims. The current deadline to apply for aid has been extended to October 28, 2022.
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