FEMA specialists will visit 'every single home' in Rogers County
Jul. 13—Specialists from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are walking the streets of Claremore to help residents apply for assistance.
FEMA spokesperson Leyla Gulen said about eight members of FEMA's Disaster Survivor Assistance team are knocking on doors throughout Rogers County, talking to homeowners who answer and leaving flyers if no one does. Gulen said specialists aim to visit every home in the county.
"You don't want anything to hold up somebody's ability to get assistance," Gulen said. "They'll walk in the rain if they have to, or they'll walk in the scorching heat if they have to."
As the mercury crept toward 90 degrees and the sun beat down around noon Tuesday, specialists Nam LaMore and Angela Boston trawled along Muskogee and Maryland avenues, just south of the May 25 tornado's path.
Gulen said specialists like LaMore and Boston were walking up to 10 miles a day, visiting houses, and would likely complete their circuit by Friday.
They carried tablets with them, which Gulen said let them see which houses FEMA had yet to visit. LaMore said some people may not know how to register for FEMA assistance on their own, and going door to door ensures everyone can benefit from federal services.
"Having technology available to us makes us mobile and agile," LaMore said. "It allows us to pull up case files for people on the spot. We can make updates for them on the spot, we can tell them what's going on in their case file, we can register people on the spot."
LaMore and Boston helped Charles Covington, a homeowner on Muskogee Avenue, apply for assistance. Covington said the whole process took about half an hour, and the next step would be for a FEMA inspector to reach out to him to survey the damage.
The storm knocked out Covington's power, smashed his air conditioning unit, felled a pecan tree and partially damaged his roof. He said he was mostly back to normal and was thankful the damage wasn't worse.
"About three blocks south of here, there's a tree laying over in a house, and you know, that could have been my house as well," Covington said. "So I'm just thankful to God that he spared me."
Some residents LaMore and Boston visited Tuesday had already applied for assistance, like Shakira Eskind, who is the house manager of a women and children's home on Maryland Avenue.
Eskind said the house only received minor damage to its siding, playground and fence, and the check she would receive from FEMA would help her replace the trampoline.
She told LaMore and Boston she loved them and hugged them as they left. She said she was thankful for their assistance, as well as the help she received from community groups like Samaritan's Purse.
"My life has just been so good since I've been here," Eskind said. "...It's just a really good life, and it was nice to see how everybody just came together with the tornado."
FEMA declared the May 25 tornado a disaster on June 14, and it established a disaster recovery center in Claremore July 6. The center is in the Rogers County Health Department's west annex, 2664 N. State Highway 88.
People who want to talk to a specialist directly can also call FEMA's helpline at 800-621-3362, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Assistance is also available at disasterassistance.gov or through the FEMA app.
Gulen said going in person to each home in the county is important because it helps FEMA ensure it can reach as many people as possible and make its presence in the community known.
"When you knock on their door, and you say, 'Have you registered yet?' [They'll say,] 'Oh, I didn't even know FEMA was here,'" Gulen said. "So it's worth its weight in gold for a lot of people."
