ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. — Louisiana residents continue to apply for disaster assistance through FEMA nearly two weeks since Hurricane Ida hit.
"I'm coming to ask FEMA for a little help because I didn't have no homeowners insurance,” Tina Bernard said.
Bernard was born and raised in St. Bernard Parish and she’s no stranger to hurricanes.
"I was born during Betsy,” she said.
She says the damage to her home wasn’t too bad, but with no insurance she has no idea how much it would cost.
"I have plenty animals and I didn't think it was going to hit that bad and that wind being, you know, strong. I didn't evacuate with none of my animals and we got not major damage,” Bernard said.
FEMA set up several mobile units across Louisiana. They’ve already provided $308 million in grants to Ida survivors. Around 270,000 homes have been approved for aid statewide.
There’s still time to apply.
"There has been a widely reported date to be considered for critical needs assistance and that day had been Sept. 12. However, the state requested, and FEMA approved a 10 day extension of that until Sept. 22.”
While FEMA cannot duplicate insurance payments, if an insurance company denies a claim for relief from the hurricane, provide a copy of the denial letter to the agency and it will consider your household for assistance grant money.
"We're doing home inspections also where people are reporting serious damage not covered by insurance,” … said. “We've already done more than 45,000 home inspections, we're going to do many thousands more and as we do those more money is being proved."
The deadline for basic home repairs, temporary rental assistance, replacing personal property and money for chainsaws and generators is Oct. 28.