East Alameda News

Residents with losses from the New Year’s series of storms can get questions answered, learn about assistance

Redwood City – A federal Disaster Recovery Center will remain open at the San Mateo County Event Center through March 14 to help residents affected by recent storms learn about available assistance.

Operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and California Office of Emergency Services, the center will operate daily at the San Mateo County Event Center from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., including weekends. Note the center will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14.

Enter the Event Center at the west parking entrance, 2495 South Delaware St., San Mateo, 94403 (Google map link). Disaster recovery staff are located in Cypress Hall.

The new closure date extends the Disaster Recovery Center’s operation by about a month.

The deadline to apply for FEMA assistance is March 16, 2023.

San Mateo County is included in the disaster declaration for California’s severe storms and flooding. That means residents who had damage or losses from the storms that began in late December 2022 may now apply for FEMA disaster assistance.

Disaster assistance may include grants to help pay for temporary housing and essential home repairs as well as other serious disaster-related needs such as medical and dental expenses, transportation, childcare, and moving and storage expenses.

If you need to contact the County of San Mateo, you can call the Department of Emergency Management district coordinators: Kevin Foiles at (650) 779-9338 or Jeff Norris at (650) 599-1296.

Before traveling to the Event Center, it may be helpful to review the following:

Disaster Assistance Basics (English) (Spanish) 

Assistance for Families and Individuals (English) (Spanish) 

Programs to Support Disaster Survivors (English) (Spanish)

What information does FEMA require? (English) (Spanish)

Assistance for Governments and Nonprofits (English) (Spanish) 

If you have insurance, first file a claim with your insurance provider. FEMA provides assistance to applicants for your uninsured or underinsured disaster-caused expenses and serious needs.

There are several ways that you can apply for FEMA assistance under the Individual Assistance program:

Visit DisasterAssistance.gov

Download the FEMA mobile app

Call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. Help is available in many languages. If you use video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service. Helpline operators speak many languages. Press 2 for Spanish. Press 3 for an interpreter who speaks your language. The helpline is available until 8 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time).

Media Contact

Michelle Durand Chief Communications Officermdurand@smcgov.org

 Original source can be found here.