Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Hurricane Bret relief continues

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Saturday, September 11, 1999

Hurricane Bret relief continues
Six new area centers will open this week
By Deborah Mart¡nez
Caller-Times

Hurricane Bret victims who missed taking advantage of services from disaster recovery centers that closed Thursday can still visit those in Kingsville and Falfurrias, or any of six others scheduled to be open by Wednesday.
   Centers in Driscoll and Premont closed Thursday Centers in Corpus Christi, Rockport and Sinton will be available starting today to Coastal Bend area residents who lost personal or commercial property to Bret in August.
   Jim Wells County residents can visit a center that will open Monday in Alice, and on Tuesday, Duval County residents will have one in Benavides. Kenedy County residents may visit a center in Sarita beginning Wednesday.
   "If somebody's got a question, come on down,'' said Earl Armstrong, public information officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "If, after they call the 800 number, they have questions, we're here.''
   Actual applications for FEMA assistance can be made by calling 1-800-462-9029. The hearing impaired can call 1-800-462-7585. Applications will not be taken at the information centers.
   The centers, sponsored by FEMA and the Texas Division of Emergency Management, are open to any of Bret's victims wondering how to get money to repair their property.
   Victims have until Oct. 20 to seek assistance - 60 days from when President Clinton declared 12 South Texas counties disaster areas because of Bret. About 170 already have sought assistance at the centers throughout South Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley, Armstrong said. Laredo's center will open today.
   Six federal and state agencies - the Small Business Administration, the Texas Department of Human Services, Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Attorney General, Texas Comptroller and Texas Department of Insurance - will be on hand to make relief assistance recipients aware of their rights and options.
   "FEMA is going to start releasing money and people who've been victimized are going through a trauma and don't know how to handle the money,'' said assistant attorney general Raul Noriega. "So, we're here to hear complaints from people who feel they been taken advantage of by contractors in the home improvement arena. Crisis tends to draw a seedy side of the home improvement arena.''

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