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Flood
insurance claims can be complicated, and policyholders may have questions in
the days and weeks following a disaster. FEMA launched a National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP) call center pilot program to serve and support
policyholders with the servicing of their claims.
The
NFIP call center can be reached at
1-800-621-3362, and will operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (CDT) Monday through
Friday. Specialists will be available to assist policyholders with their claims, provide general information regarding their
policies, and/or offer technical assistance to aid in recovery.
For
those who prefer to put their concerns in writing, a “Request for Support” form
is posted at www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program, which can be filled out and emailed to
FEMA-NFIP-Support@fema.dhs.gov or
faxed to 540-504-2360.
Call
center staff will be able to answer questions such as “How
do I file a flood insurance claim?, What type of documentation is needed?, Can I
still obtain disaster assistance even though I have a flood policy?” as well as
more complicated insurance questions about the extent of coverage, policy
ratings, and more. The call center
will also be open to disaster survivors who have general questions about the
NFIP.
Disaster
survivors and policyholders are asked to have the following information
available when contacting the call center:
- Contact information (Name, telephone
number, email address if applicable);
- Policy number;
- Address of damaged property; and
- Name of flood insurance carrier.
Flood
insurance plays a critical role in assisting survivors on their road to
recovery. Like other types of insurance, it does not cover all losses, but it
is the first line of defense against a flood. While the policy payouts won’t
make the insured whole, our top priority is to ensure policyholders get what
they are due under their coverage. This
initiative is part of FEMA’s ongoing commitment to effective, long-term
improvements to the NFIP.
FEMA is committed to increasing the transparency and
accessibility of data. FEMA launched a new data visualization tool
that enables the public to see when and where disaster declarations have
occurred across the country. As hurricane season kicks off this week, the tool
helps educate people about the history of hurricanes and other disasters in
their communities.
The Public Data Visualization Tool, accessible at www.fema.gov/data-visualization,
allows users to view and interact with FEMA data. Through an interactive
platform, users can view the history of disaster declarations by hazard type or
year and financial support provided to states, tribes, and territories, and access public
datasets for further research and analysis. This builds off of the BETA launch
in January where users were able to see a visual representation of federal grant
data as it relates to fire, preparedness, mitigation, individual assistance and
public assistance.
The OpenFEMA data used in the visualization are from the
publicly available datasets on www.fema.gov and www.data.gov. FEMA is committed to
updating these existing datasets in a timely manner and as feasible, to provide
new datasets for external partners to manipulate and use. FEMA will continue
to develop additional visualizations based on feedback and the availability of
public data.
View the visualization tool at www.fema.gov/data-visualization.
FEMA announced the fifth
public meeting of the Technical Mapping Advisory Council (TMAC), scheduled for
June 23-24, 2015, in Silver Spring, Maryland. The public meeting will be held
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Headquarters Conference
Center, located at 1325 East-West Highway, Silver Spring,
Maryland 20910 on June 23 from 12:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. and June 24 from 12:30 p.m. –
5:30 p.m. ET.
The TMAC will discuss
topics including progress from two TMAC subcommittees: Future
Conditions; and Annual Report (the Flood Hazard Risk Generation
and Dissemination; and Operations, Coordination, and Leveraging subcommittees
have been merged into the newly formed Annual Report subcommittee)
regarding data and recommendations; topics for inclusion in the Future
Conditions Report and Annual Report, which are to be delivered in October 2015;
and next steps for TMAC discussions and report development.
In addition,
invited subject matter experts will brief TMAC members on FEMA’s mapping
program and the progress of FEMA’s Flood Insurance Reform Flood Mapping
Integrated Project Team (IPT) to date, and present a tribal perspective on the
program.
A public comment period
will be held during June 23 from 4:30 – 5:00 p.m. ET and June 24 from
3:30 – 4:00 p.m. ET. Those interested in speaking during the public comment
period must contact FEMA by email at FEMA-TMAC@fema.dhs.gov
or by calling 202-646-3432 to register as a speaker by June 18, 2015. Those not
attending and wish to submit written comments can do so in the following ways:
- Online at the Federal eRulemaking Portal
- Email to FEMA-RULES@fema.dhs.gov and cc: FEMA-TMAC@fema.dhs.gov
- Mail to Regulatory
Affairs Division, Office of Chief Counsel, FEMA, 500 C St SW, Room 8NE,
Washington, DC 20472-3100.
All submissions received
must include the words “Federal Emergency Management Agency” and docket number,
FEMA-2014-0022. Comments received will be posted without alteration at www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided.
For those planning to
attend in person and for additional information on facilities or services for
individuals with disabilities or to request special assistance at the meeting,
contact FEMA at FEMA-TMAC@fema.dhs.gov.
Attendees must contact FEMA and register by June 18, 2015 to receive
important information on the meeting location. More information on the TMAC
meeting is available online
and at www.fema.gov/TMAC.
The
Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships,
FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division, the U.S. Department of
Education's Center for School Preparedness, and Save the Children invite audiences to
join a co-hosted webinar, "Getting Youth Involved in Emergency Preparedness," on June 23 from 2 - 3 p.m. ET. The webinar is intended to help connect faith-based and community
organizations to tools and resources for youth preparedness activities. Audience members will hear from organizations that are
affirmers of the National Strategy for
Youth Preparedness Education, and how they can work alongside youth and leverage
existing resources and partnerships to increase preparedness in communities.
Participants can register for the webinar online. Closed captioning will be provided.
FEMA and its
interagency partners hosted the annual hurricane video teleconference (VTC) on June 11 for
state and tribal emergency managers in hurricane-prone regions. FEMA
Administrator Craig Fugate led the VTC; Dr. Richard Knabb, Director of the National
Hurricane Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Admiral
William E. Gortney, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, joined him.
During the VTC, Dr.
Knabb shared the current outlook for the upcoming hurricane season and
highlighted new and experimental products and models that the National
Hurricane Center will utilize this year. Following his briefing, state and
tribal emergency managers identified limiting factors that could impact their hurricane
response and recovery capabilities.
The VTC provides a means to share information on the upcoming
hurricane season. Most importantly, it provides an opportunity for federal,
state, and tribal participants to test their communication and technology
capabilities in a way similar to how these participants would communicate in a real
pre-landfall hurricane scenario.
FEMA's Emergency
Management Institute (EMI) recently hosted a Virtual Tabletop Exercise (VTTX)
for Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of MLB's emergency preparedness
efforts. Personnel from the New York Mets, Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays,
Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, and Houston Astros participated in specialized training as part of the VTTX offered by the EMI. The exercise was an
active shooter scenario to help MLB prepare for the unexpected during the 2015
baseball season.
More information about this VTTX can be found on the FEMA blog.
FEMA announced $180 million
in funding available through two Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) grant
programs: Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) and Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM).
These two grant programs assist state, local, tribal, and territorial
governments in strengthening our nation’s ability to reduce the potential cost of natural disasters to communities
and their citizens.
Both HMA FY 2015 Funding Opportunity Announcements can be
found at www.grants.gov. Eligible applicants must apply for funding through
the Mitigation eGrants system on the FEMA Grants Portal accessible at https://portal.fema.gov. All applications must be submitted no
later than 3 p.m. EDT on August 28,
2015.
FEMA's HMA grant programs
provide states, local governments, tribes, and territories funding for eligible
mitigation activities to strengthen our nation’s ability to reduce disaster
losses and protect life and property from future disaster damages. Further
information on these grant programs is available at www.fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-assistance.
FEMA’s Emergency Management
Institute (EMI) offers a variety of Virtual Tabletop Exercise (VTTX) programs that are designed for a community based group of at least ten
or more personnel from state, local, tribal, or territorial emergency
management organizations with
representatives from other disciplines such as public safety, public
works,
public health, health care, government, administrative, communications,
military, private sector, non-governmental, and other whole community
partners. Participants must have an appropriate site
equipped with video teleconference capability that can access FEMA.
EMI will conduct VTTX programs between June
and September 2015 on a variety of subjects:
- July 7-9: Long-term Power Outage
- July 28-30: Psychology of Disaster: Long-term Mental Health Recovery
- August 25-27: Building Collapse Focused
- September 1-3: Public Health Infectious Disease (written and hosted by the CDC)
A complete listing of all the 2015 VVTX dates and scenarios can be found online.
To apply for a VTTX event, submit an email request to participate in the
exercise to Doug Kahn at douglas.kahn@fema.dhs.gov or call
301-447-7645. The deadline for applying to participate in a VTTX is four
weeks prior to the start date.
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