One Month After Ida: Federal Funding Tops $175 Million for New Jersey

TRENTON, N.J. – One month after the federal disaster declaration for the remnants of Hurricane Ida, more than $175.8 million in federal funds have been provided to New Jersey to aid in their recovery.

Funds include grants from FEMA, low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration and claims payments from the National Flood Insurance Program:

More than $88.5 million in federal grants approved for homeowners and renters.

More than $53.1 million in SBA low-interest disaster loans approved for homeowners, renters and business owners.

More than $34.1 million paid to NFIP policyholders statewide.

“This is an impressive milestone to reach in such a short period of time,” said FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Patrick Cornbill. “This money goes directly into the hands of survivors and allows them to start on the road to recovery, while helping them achieve their long-term goals and begin to return to a sense of normalcy. We couldn’t have done it without our state and federal partners here on the ground.”             

Assistance Helps Communities Recover

As of Oct. 5, FEMA has approved more than $88.5 million for 18,932 families in New Jersey. This included:

More than $82.5 million in Housing Assistance grants for repairs to primary residences or for rental of temporary housing.

More than $6 million for grants to repair or replace damaged personal property or to pay for disaster-related necessary expenses and other serious needs. 

FEMA completed damage inspections of 30,956 homes, which is part of the process of determining whether applicants are eligible for assistance.

Individuals in Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union and Warren counties are eligible to apply for disaster assistance. To find a DRC nearest you, click on the FEMA DRC link: fema.gov/drc

FEMA has operated 12 Disaster Recovery Centers—one in each of the counties designated—for Individual Assistance and had a total of 4,144 visitors to date.

At the DRCs, survivors can speak to representatives from FEMA’s Individuals and Households program, FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation program, and SBA loan programs, to get answers to questions about written correspondence. Literature is available on repairs and rebuilding to make homes disaster resistant.

Seventeen FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance teams conducted outreach in the 12 counties, assisting survivors with registering for FEMA assistance, checking the status of applications and identifying  potential needs.

NJ 211 plays an essential role in emergency response and recovery in New Jersey. Visit https://www.nj211.org/tropical-storm-ida to find out about all the available resources.

Individuals who lost their jobs directly due to the disaster and work or live in one of the declared counties may be eligible for Disaster Unemployment Benefits. The DUA program is a part of the federal disaster assistance process but is administered by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL). For more information or to apply visit https://go.usa.gov/xMmad.

If you are feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed due to the recent weather emergencies, please call NJ Mental Health Cares Helpline at 866-202-4357 (TTY: 877-294-4356) for emotional support, guidance, and mental health referrals as needed.

All FEMA disaster messaging has been provided in 10 languages identified as prevalent in New Jersey: Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Gujarati, Polish, Italian, Tagalog, Haitian Creole and Arabic, in addition to English and American Sign Language. Bilingual speakers have been available for public meetings.

The toll-free disaster assistance helpline, 800-621-3362 is also supported by specialists in these 10 languages and additional languages, and live translation services are available to all applicants who call FEMA.

There are three ways survivors can apply for disaster assistance:

The most convenient is by going online to DisasterAssistance.gov/.

If it is not possible to apply online, call 800-621-3362 (TTY: 800-462-7585) or apply via the FEMA app. The toll-free telephone lines are currently operating 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service. Multilingual operators are available.

The deadline to apply for disaster assistance is Nov. 4, 2021.

For the latest information visit fema.gov/disaster/4614. Follow the FEMA Region 2 Twitter account at twitter.com/FEMAregion2.