RSS feed source: Federal Emergency Management Agency
FEMA Follow-Up Calls Lead to Millions in Disaster Assistance for West Virginians
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – FEMA recovery efforts likely conjure images of safety vests and disaster sites. But a significant recovery effort in the past 10 months under FEMA reforms now includes headsets, mobile phones and office cubicles.
Staff from FEMA’s Enhanced Applicant Services (EAS) work from call centers eight hours a day, six days a week to follow up on applications submitted after a federal disaster is declared.
In West Virginia, EAS specialists have been calling survivors to check on the status of their applications, identify issues that could be slowing the process, discover additional assistance for which they may be eligible, or answer any questions a survivor might have.
While the phone conversations might be simple, their effects have been profound. In West Virginia, which has had four federally declared disasters since May 2024, EAS outreach has led to more than $4.1 million in additional assistance. That’s nearly 12 percent of the $35 million helping thousands of applicants.
Just weeks into its latest disaster resulting from February 2025 flooding, EAS calls have led to more than three-quarters of a million dollars that otherwise would have been left on the table for more than 1,000 state residents – already the highest rate of the four disasters declared.
Those millions of disaster dollars helping West Virginians are the
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