Whiteland, Indiana – Beginning on Wednesday, Indiana tornado victims will receive a higher degree of assistance.
To ensure that Hoosiers receive the assistance they require, teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are knocking on doors in 12 Indiana cities recently hit by tornadoes.
Disaster-stricken communities like Whiteland are beginning to return to normal as mountains of debris are no longer dispersed among numerous yards.
“To see where we’ve come from the first night that it hit and the damage and destruction that was all throughout the county,” Whiteland Fire Chief Eric Funkhouser described. “Just to kind of come through here now and to see the difference of how clean everything is, all the streets being open, and not even knowing some of the areas where it even hit anymore, it’s pretty amazing.”
Funkhouser claimed that each week, the village appears better as a result of the helping hands.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “The amount of volunteers who stepped up since day one has been fantastic.”
FEMA is currently ensuring that those who lost everything have a route to a complete recovery.
“Our mission is to help people, even if that’s meeting them where they are,” said local FEMA spokesperson Craig Browning. “That’s what’s most important.”
The goal of FEMA’s door-to-door disaster survivor assistance teams is to stop anyone from becoming yet another victim.
“It’s unfortunate that there are folks in society that prey on people in their worst time,” Browning said. “But we do have safeguards in effect when disasters happen.”
According to Browning, there are telltale signals to look for if someone attempts to pass themselves off as a FEMA employee.
“There is a FEMA outfit, typically a FEMA vest,” he said. “They have federal identification that you can ask for. Ask to see that identification.”
The simplest method to avoid a fraud, according to Browning, is to request identification, but catastrophe victims shouldn’t be reluctant to call the police if they have any worries.
“If you suspect somebody’s committing fraud or trying to scam you through this recovery process, the first step is to report that to your local law enforcement,” he said.
Applicants from Indiana who require FEMA assistance may also do so by registering online, via the FEAM app, or by contacting the FEMA helpdesk at 1-800-621-3362.
