An unprecedented number of Hispanic and Latino residents across the Tampa Bay region have applied for federal assistance after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Jovanna Garcia of the Federal Emergency Management Agency travels to the hardest hit areas to work with residents and local officials.
She said more than 700 Hispanic and Latino people applied for assistance at a FEMA disaster relief site in Plant City. Many of them are migrant workers living in low-lying areas or mobile homes.
Garcia said there's a couple reasons why Hispanics and Latinos have historically avoided interactions with the federal government.
"It's a very hard-working community, and sometimes they're like, ‘at this point right now, we're good,’ but then again, we know that they're not good,” Garcia said.
“The other reason, biggest reason, is, of course, ‘why would I qualify if I don't have any documents?’ The fear of the federal government has been a big thing, and we're here to tell people that there's no fear in us trying to provide you with resources and assistance."
Garcia said parents without documentation can have their children who are U.S. citizens apply on behalf of the household.
It's not too late to apply for federal assistance if you've been impacted by the recent storms. WUSF's Jessica Meszaros spoke to Garcia about how to apply and what you can expect.
What resources does FEMA offer to those impacted by storms, like what is available to them through FEMA?
We first invite people to register with FEMA. We want them to first go through their insurance to file their claim with the insurance company. Many have insurance, many don't. Then that doesn’t necessarily mean that if you have insurance, you don't register with FEMA. “I'm not going to get assistance” — that's not what it is. Even if you have insurance, we still want you to register.
So, the key point here is register with FEMA. Once you register with FEMA, then that's going to automatically activate the different resources. Now that we're going to go ahead and see exactly what are the needs of each individual person in household.
What are some things that FEMA might provide financial assistance for? I understand if you've had lost power for over three days, or if you lost possibly some food in your refrigerator if you had flooding ... or also put people up in a hotel or Airbnbs?
Right, each individual household is going to be determined and assessed differently. You're going to be eligible based on what the losses are in the home, especially if your home is a total loss. Again, the first thing we have to look at is the insurance. And of course, underinsured, we're going to look into that as well. And we're going to see what the inspector provides to us, what they're eligible for.
And what's the best way for people to register for FEMA assistance?
Well, there's many ways: by calling the 1-800-621-3362. I will say we've been getting a lot of calls of long wait time, but at this time right now, the people that are behind that phone line ... they are individual assistance subject matter experts. They're the ones that really have that access to really see what's going on into your individual case.
The other avenue would be by going onto our website, disasterassistance.gov. I've actually tested it out with survivors here. Very quickly, go in, and you can register without a problem. And it also gives the opportunity to upload your documents. Now, if you don't speak the language on the top right-hand side, you can click on it and just it'll translate it into the language that you speak.
Another thing that I've been noticing is our FEMA app is going to be a best friend for the next couple of weeks because you're going to get all your correspondence there quicker than anywhere else.
Then we have the other avenue, which is our disaster recovery centers, which is a fixed site where we will have our FEMA representatives there that are able to register and also look and update documents.
We're telling people now, if you feel that you can't just be on the phone or you can do the website or the app, then they can go ahead and text “DRC” and put the ZIP code onto the number 43362, it will give you the different locations of the disaster recovery centers and the mobile disaster recovery centers in the area. Most of these locations are about maybe 30 to 45 minutes away from each other, but it's a way of people to sit down face to face.
