Disaster News
Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management
Federal Emergency Management Agency

For Immediate Release:
August 24, 2007

 
TWO WEEKS TO GO TO REGISTER FOR DISASTER ASSISTANCE

 
OKLAHOMA CITY – With just two weeks to go before the September 5 deadline to register for federal disaster assistance, officials of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urge Oklahomans affected by the severe storms, flooding and tornadoes that occurred prior to July 25 to make sure they have applied for all the federal assistance for which they may be eligible.

Only those who have applied to FEMA by Sept. 5, 2007 may be eligible for the variety of individual assistance programs made available to the 20 Oklahoma counties of Blaine, Bryan, Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Grady, Logan, Kiowa, McClain, Nowata, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Payne, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Rogers, Seminole, Stephens and Washington.

To apply for disaster assistance, call FEMA toll-free at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY 1-800-462-7585 for the speech- or hearing-impaired. Phone lines are open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time. Application also may be made on-line at www.fema.gov.

In a disaster declaration, the SBA is the primary source of financial assistance. If you have received an SBA loan application, you must complete and return it to be considered for other grants and programs. If you do not qualify for a loan, you will be referred for other federal or state assistance, such as FEMA’s Other Needs Assistance (ONA) program, which covers disaster-related costs such as furniture and transportation expenses. Applicants will not be considered for ONA until they have applied to and been denied by SBA. You can get help by calling the SBACustomerServiceCenter at 1-800-659-2955 or on-line at www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.

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