The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that President Barack Obama signed a Disaster Declaration for CookCounty for Individual Assistance in regards to the flooding disaster that Cook County suffered onJuly 24, 2010.

This declaration authorizes FEMA to begin working with local residents to issuedisaster assistance grants or loans.Skokie residents (homeowners and renters) and business owners who sustained losses from thestorms may be eligible for disaster aid and can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired. The toll-free telephone numbers will operate from 7 a.m. to10 p.m., seven days a week, until further notice.FEMA advises that when applying for disaster assistance have the following informationavailable:

• Your Social Security number.

• A telephone number where you can be contacted. 

• Insurance information.  

• Total household annual income  

• A routing and account number from your bank (only necessary if you want to have disaster assistance funds transferred directly into your bank account)

• A description of your losses that were caused by the disaster.

 The level of assistance will be assessed and determined by FEMA; the most important thing is toapply, through FEMA, and start the process. Government disaster assistance covers basic needsonly and will not normally compensate for the entire loss.If you submitted information to the Village regarding damage including completing the StormDamage Data Collection Questionnaire, thank you for assisting the region in collecting datanecessary to achieve the federal disaster designation. Please note that in order to be considered forany assistance available due to the declaration, you must now apply directly to FEMA.

The information supplied to date was important for assessing the level of damage to achieve thedeclaration, but is not part of the application process for individual assistance.For additional information, please visit www.fema.gov.

Released by

Nick Wyatt, Public Information Officer

847/933-8283