that help is available, so kind of two questions. what s the help out there, and how do you get people to know that it s out there. appreciate the question. so there s three parts right now that i want to share with you about forms of disaster assistance. i would say the first, for those that are ensured, your homeowner s or renter s insurance is going to be your first line of help and support. when we talk about fema s efforts, through our number, 1-800-361-3262, or disasterassistance.gov. some things we re doing, our fema disaster survivor assistance teams are on the ground, canvassing neighborhoods. we ll be setting up mobile registration sites. we don t want people to wait to get access to technology before they can get access to help. those are popular ways in coordination with partners in
of all of the critical infrastructure that s been damaged by this storm. again, go to disasterassistance.gov, and you can find out more information about what will be available. we also know that the communications are bad, and you re not going to be able to perhaps access some of the sites that we send you to or make phone calls. so we re going to send teams into the field. we call them disaster survivor assistance teams. so if you see somebody walking around with a fema shirt, a fema jacket on and you have a question, pull them aside. they re going to be able to look it up, they re going to have ipads with them. they can find information, they can help you register for assistance if you need to. they should be on the ground starting tomorrow and going into those communities that have been the most impacted. and, just to close, fema is just one part of the team. this disaster declaration is going to allow us to bring the entire federal family together to provide the much-needed suppor
to hear some of the impacts they re having and some of their shortfalls. the things we are hearing are housing, housing is going to be a tremendous need as we continue to go forward. power, water, fuel, all of these things to help the communities start their rebuilding process. because housing we know is going to be a such a tremendous need, we are sending in one of our housing experts that will be here tomorrow to begin the strategy for how we re going to be able to help with the long-term housing needs and the recovery of these communities. part of that is we also did receive a request from the governor just moments ago for a major disaster declaration. as you heard the president approved an emergency declaration yesterday, which allowed us to really move resources in quickly to start with those initial response efforts. but the major disaster declaration is going to begin to help individuals. you can go to disasterassistance.gov, and you can find the type of assistance that will be
again, go to disasterassistance.gov. you will find out what more information will be available. also, the communication is bad and we will send in the disaster survivor assistance teams, so if you see somebody walking around with a fema shirt or jacket on and you have a question, pull them aside. they can help you register for assistance if you need to. they should be on the ground starting tomorrow, and going into those communities that have been the most impacted. just to close, fema is just one part of the team. this disaster declaration will allow us to bring our entire fema family together, and that will be through the duration of the recovery, and governor you have my commitment that you will
0 nbc s wendy joins us from there. it s good to talk to you again. what are you hearing from folks in these ongoing efforts to rescue as many people as possible? yasmin, good afternoon to you. good to speak to you again. it s incredible, the outpouring of help and support that you are hearing, and seeing people come out in the downtown area. wherever you look there seems to be destruction, and everywhere you turn there seems to be a story, and people sometimes think we are exaggerating that thing, but i m not kidding you, you can walk one block and find a store yeah then walk another block and find somebody who has drove here, and we just spoke to somebody who drove from nashville that happened upon a law firm that was decimated by the storm, and started moving things and cutting out wires, and it was incredible. you ask them why they are doing it? the community needed help. then we have another wife and husband, and that was his law firm completely destroyed in the storm and all the