KEY TAKEAWAYS
- File a damage report today if you haven’t already: damage.tdem.texas.gov The state has numbers to hit in order to get federal assistance and so far, not many people have taken this step
- If you don’t have flood insurance, get it before Hurricane season
- Don’t get scammed, especially by people who say, “Pay me today and I’ll be back tomorrow to get the work done.”
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HOUSTON – The state’s putting out a critical request for anyone who has flood or storm damage to get a damage report filed with the state today. Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Governor Greg Abbott have three more tasks they deem critical for your to-do or must-do list if you’re in recovery mode from flood or storm damage.
RELATED: Gov Abbott briefs Houston-area on ‘enormous and catastrophic event’ after touring flood damage
1. FILE A DAMAGE REPORT
Here’s where you do it:
- damage.tdem.texas.gov to report damage to your home or business
Here’s why you do it:
The state has to demonstrate a need for federal assistance and to do that, the rule of thumb, according to Kidd, is they have to hit certain numbers for damage to insured and uninsured homes and businesses.
“In order for this region to be able to receive federal financial assistance, it’s important that there is enough identified in damages that qualify us for that federal assistance,” Governor Abbott said after touring flood damage in the Conroe area.
“Damage assessments are critical to our success,” Kidd said. “As a thumb rule, we need 800 homes that are major damage or destroyed, meaning lost a roof, lost exterior walls, or washed off their peers or foundations that are uninsured to be eligible to qualify for FEMA Individual Assistance.”
“On the public assistance side for a federal declaration, our state agencies and local partners need to demonstrate over $54 million of uninsured damage to government infrastructure and response cost. I believe we’re going to hit that for this event, but I’ve got to be able to demonstrate those numbers to our federal partners,” Kidd said.
2. CONTACT YOUR FLOOD INSURANCE AGENT
“Flood insurance is very important to help you recover, but I will tell you, as of last night, we have only had 501 people statewide register claims with their flood insurance provider. That means either there’s people that have not registered yet, or we have a whole lot of uninsured loss in this event,” Kidd said.
FEMA and the Small Business Administration will have representatives in areas with damage starting Tuesday to help assess damage.
“But I want to set the standard here,” Kidd said. “FEMA Individual Assistance is a maximum of $75,000 grant. And if you go back to Hurricane Harvey, the average payout was only $2,400 per household.”
3. IF YOU DON’T HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE, GET IT
“If you do not have flood insurance right now and your home did not flood, just because you do not live in a flood plain does not mean you’re not eligible for flood insurance. Call your insurance agent. Try to get flood insurance if you were not flooded because there’s a 30-day waiting period and Hurricane season is right around the corner,” Kidd said.
4. BEWARE OF SCAMMERS
“Listen, there’s gonna be people knocking at your door, people calling you, people with signs up offering to put you first in line for repairs. Asking for your money upfront and they’ll come back the next day to complete the repairs, but never show back up. Do not fall prey to scams,” Abbott said.
“The best way you can do that is maybe look into the person that you’re trying to hire to do the repair work on your home and make sure they’re well qualified and have a good reputation. If they can’t be found anywhere on the internet or anything like that, you may be dealing with somebody who could be involved in a scam. So just watch out. You’ve already lost your property. Don’t lose your money to a scammer.”