February 6, 2002—Federal funds distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and state of New York have reached more than $1 billion for the World Trade Center attack, reported state and federal recovery officials.
Some of the highlights of those commitments are:
- The FEMA Disaster Housing Program has provided nearly $28.2 million in grants to 5,500 households. The temporary housing assistance is available for people who cannot or should not live in their disaster-damaged dwelling, giving them the means to make it livable or find alternative housing.
- The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved over $257.9 million in low-interest disaster loans to more than 3,200 businesses, homeowners and renters.
- FEMA, in coordination with the New York Department of Labor, has provided more than $4.8 million of Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) to 2,350 workers and business owners who lost employment as a result of the WTC attack. DUA assists those not covered by the regular unemployment program, such as the self-employed.
- FEMA has funded $245 million in emergency assistance payments for recovery activities such as activation of the Urban Search and Rescue teams to work at the WTC site and additional mission assignments through other federal agencies.
- FEMA has approved more than $428 million under its Public Assistance Program. These funds will go to the state of New York to reimburse state and local government agencies for costs incurred responding to and recovering from losses associated with the WTC site attack. FEMA is funding 100 percent of this program, which is administered by the State of New York. The majority of the funding to date has been for debris removal and emergency protective measures at the WTC site. Additional public assistance projects are expected to be funded in the coming months.
To date, FEMA has registered more than 58,000 people seeking disaster assistance through its toll-free registration telephone number, 800/462-9029. The deadline for individuals and families to register for most federal, state and city disaster assistance programs is March 11, 2002.
