A look at recovery one month after historic flood

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IRMO, SC (WIS) - One month ago Wednesday, flood waters engulfed South Carolina. Residents are still struggling from devastating losses.

Derrec Becker with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division says this last month, volunteer groups have been helping residents with their disaster recovery. SCEMD has been helping flood victims get the alternative housing, home reconstruction and recovery resources they need.

Becker assures the agency will be working the disaster for as long as there's a need. He believes this next month will look similar to how this last month has gone in terms of recovery.

"A lot more of the same. A lot more of the rebuilding," he said. "Getting with the individual survivors of this disaster and finding out what their unmet needs are. It's moving very quickly. We've been told by all of the federal emergency management experts that we're moving much faster than they had expected and that's a good thing. We want to keep up that momentum. But it's still going to be a lot of work to get South Carolina back to the way it was before and hopefully a little bit better."

A lot of that rebuilding comes from FEMA filling assistance requests.

A month ago South Carolina was declared a state of emergency and since then, FEMA representatives have been here working to get people the assistance they need. 28 counties in the Palmetto State are eligible for FEMA assistance.

So far more than 75,000 people have applied for assistance and FEMA has approved more than $60 million in grants. FEMA says more than 35,000 applicants have received letters of ineligibility "for various reasons."

But they tell applicants to keep trying if a claim is denied because applicants have 60 days to appeal. FEMA says it also is calling the people who were determined ineligible, talking to applicants and taking another look at their cases.

"We are committed to reaching out to 100% of these cases; if FEMA is not able to help them, then we make every effort to connect them to an organization that can," said a statement from the agency..

They encourage flood victims to submit claims no matter what their losses are.

"Hopefully people will take responsibility for their own recovery and that means making that call to FEMA," said Leo Skinner with FEMA."Finding out what help is available through the state and local volunteer agencies and manage yourself back to that road to recovery. We're here to help you do that but you need to take the responsibility for that as well and we encourage people to do that."

According to FEMA, some reasons for ineligibility are: insufficient damage to essential living areas, some applicants are covered by flood insurance, ownership or occupancy not verified, secondary homes, missing information (like verification of insurance and insurance documents), and some have been referred to the SBA loan program.

"We believe some individuals had no damage to their homes, but may have registered with FEMA as a requirement for assistance from other agencies." said a statement from FEMA.

To submit a claim with FEMA, call 1-800-621-FEMA or click here.