NCCEH is gathering information for Homeless Services Providers and their clients as they recover from the impacts of Hurricane Florence.

You can see the latest counties that are under major disaster declaration in North Carolina on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website

Below is a list of resources last updated 10/3/2018.

It is important that all households in impacted geographies at the time of the storm register with FEMA for benefits even if they are told that they are not eligible for assistance. All determinations of eligibility are made after the completion of the registration process and may change over time. All impacted households should complete the registration process. FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) Teams will be in disaster recovery shelters initially to assist households staying there with registration. Once Disaster Resource Centers (DRC) are identified, those will be available for the general public for FEMA registration. Anyone can register with FEMA online (https://www.disasterassistance.gov/) or via phone (1-800-621-3362/TTY 1-800-462-7585).

Additional resources to assist households with registration and FEMA assistance include:

Households impacted by Hurricane Florence are also eligible for other resources and new flexibilities with programs such as Food and Nutrition Services (EBT cards); Women, Infants & Children (WIC); and Medicaid. Households can find out more information about these programs on the NC Department of Health and Human Service's Hurricane Florence Main Page.

Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Program Flexibilities

WIC Benefits

Medicaid Beneficiaries and Providers Information

How Volunteers Can Help

NC Community Foundation list of agencies providing disaster relief

National Child Traumatic Stress Network Resources

Disaster Distress Helpline

After a major disaster, tenants need to know their rights if their units are damaged or uninhabitable. The NC Justice Center and Legal Aid of NC offer a hotline to answer questions and published fliers outlining how to negotiate for repairs to a unit and recognize illegal evictions. These fliers are in both English and Spanish:

If permanent housing program participants cannot locate their lease, program staff need to provide these to households and assist them in understanding how the lease addresses storm damage. More information can be found on the Legal Aid of NC website
Natural disasters may also lead to resources being unfairly priced. Legal Aid of NC has this resource to explain how to report these incidents: NC Price Gouging Reporting

In order to understand the impact of Florence on our current system and to connect clients to eligible resources, NC HMIS has added a section called "NC Natural Disaster/Storms.”

If you enter data into HMIS: We have added new questions that will appear on the
NC HMIS Entry Assessments automatically. These new
questions will help us to gauge the impact of Hurricane Florence on our system and
to connect clients to resources. You’ll need to print out a new intake form to make
sure your paper documents have the new questions on them.

Non-HMIS agencies should also review the new questions so they can be sure to capture additional data about people entering their program. 

For more information, Contact NCCEH here!