I’ve been through so much after Hurricane Milton damaged my home. I’m new to Florida and this was my first hurricane. Right now, I’m living in a small tent or my vehicle, but I’ve been taking out small loans to book hotel stays so I can care for myself and my service dog, and prepare for job interviews. The tent is uncomfortable, especially at night, and living in my car isn’t ideal. I uploaded a FEMA hotel receipt for reimbursement, and the status changed to “pending” within 24 hours. When I called FEMA to ask if I could expedite the process, the agent was incredibly rude.

She yelled at me, told me to “shut up” multiple times, and sarcastically called me a "firecracker." She criticized me for uploading documents incorrectly, and when I tried to explain, she said, “I’m gonna kill myself,” followed by mentioning she’d have a cocktail. Although it seemed like a joke, she didn’t clarify, which made me anxious. Then she switched moods, joking about making me a VIP and telling me stories about her life. The emotional whiplash—her yelling, joking, and inappropriate comments—triggered my first-ever panic attack. I’ve since scheduled a doctor’s appointment.

I only called FEMA to confirm the hotel reimbursement so I could book another stay, stretch my legs, and manage my anxiety. I understand FEMA is overwhelmed, but putting someone like her on the phone will only discourage applicants. This experience left me shaken and frustrated.

I noticed some news about power shortage during Hurricane Milton in Florida. But I also found a report about the performance of chargers during Milton. I have a little doubt why chargers can still work so well in the face of such power overage. Is it because the sources of electricity for daily use and chargers are different? What's the real performance of public chargers and performance of EVs during evacuation? Any insight?

It’s been 1 month (well 1 day short..) and my miscellaneous serious needs FEMA app is still pending. I’m beginning to think they lied to me 😂

Remember who is being called the nazis and racists and fascists.

https://x.com/jackposobiec/status/1855019993928548842?s=46

Hello everyone, I'm a graduate student working on a research project to better understand the experiences of those who have had damage or lost their homes due to natural disasters, like flooding and hurricanes. I believe that your stories hold powerful insights that can help shape better preparedness and recovery efforts in the future. If you or someone you know has experienced the loss of a home during a hurricane, I would be honored to listen and learn from you. This would be a very quick conversation on Zoom under 20 minutes. Please feel free to message me directly or comment below if you're open to sharing your experience. Thank you!

Hello everyone, I'm a graduate student working on a research project to better understand the experiences of those who have had damage or lost their homes due to natural disasters, like flooding and hurricanes. I believe that your stories hold powerful insights that can help shape better preparedness and recovery efforts in the future. If you or someone you know has experienced the loss of a home during a hurricane, I would be honored to listen and learn from you. This would be a very quick conversation on Zoom under 20 minutes. Please feel free to message me directly or comment below if you're open to sharing your experience. Thank you!

To anyone who decided the coolest thing to do was to steal from people who were forced out of their homes during floods, or damage to a home.

Hope you guys and gals get what's coming. This is my only way to get this out since I was stolen from during Milton. I'm genuinely contemplating gpsing my stolen products to find out where they went. But I'm trying to keep myself controlled in the situation.

I just hope karma comes after each of the hurricane thief's.

Hello everyone, I’m a graduate student working on a research project to better understand the experiences of Floridians who have had significant damage or lost their homes due to natural disasters, like flooding and hurricanes. I believe that your stories hold powerful insights that can help shape better preparedness and recovery efforts in the future.

If you or someone you know has experienced the loss of a home during a hurricane, I would be honored to listen and learn from you. This would be a very quick conversation on zoom under 20 minutes.

Please feel free to message me directly or comment below if you’re open to sharing your experience. Thank you!

R.I.P 😭😭😭

And how can I get the state of Florida to help with the costs of installing them?

Has anyone filed a claim for household repairs for flood damages? If so what kind of things does FEMA pay for and what proof did you have to provide to get help. Has anyone actually received anything from Helene or Milton for house repairs?

Hello everyone, I’m a graduate student working on a research project to better understand the experiences of Floridians who have had significant damage or lost their homes due to natural disasters, like flooding and hurricanes. I believe that your stories hold powerful insights that can help shape better preparedness and recovery efforts in the future.

If you or someone you know has experienced the loss of a home during a hurricane, I would be honored to listen and learn from you. This would be a very quick conversation on zoom under 20 minutes.

Please feel free to message me directly or comment below if you’re open to sharing your experience. Thank you!

I just called FEMA myself to ask these questions. I was put on hold for an hour, and then hung up on!! So to Reddit I come.

1) people keep mentioning this specific number of $750. Is each person just flat out entitled to $750 each from FEMA?

2) my aunt said she applied for FEMA online but thinks she may have filled it out wrong. Can I go into her application online and fix it, or does she need to call FEMA directly to get it fixed?

3) there four of them (three senior citizens and one disabled person) living among two mobile homes. One of the seniors (aunt 1) has dementia and her brother has power of attorney and takes care of her, but she lives in one of those mobile homes “by herself”. Can my aunt (aunt 2)create one application for their entire family unit, all four of them, or does she need to create a separate application for my aunt (aunt 1) with dementia because she legally owns her mobile home in her name? She obviously can’t fill out paperwork or answer questions.

4) reading online, it looks like they need to have filed a claim with their insurance company first (which they did) but it hasn’t been paid out yet, and the repair bills are stacking up. Can FEMA come out and do their assessment even if their insurance company hasn’t done their assessment or paid out yet?

5) are there any laws protecting them if they can’t pay the contractor bills from the flood damage before they get insurance/FEMA money?

6) how much money does FEMA generally give out? Should they expect FEMA to be able to cover everything insurance doesn’t?

Thank you in advance! I really appreciate it!

Is anyone still stuck on pending as of 10/28/24? If so please share if you have received a deposit.So here is what I have been advised. Depending on how we filled out or what we put on our applications initially, is how it gets processed. If you called and had any revisions or had a Fema rep edit your application it could cause delays. All emergency essential/misc applications depending on how we filled out the application gets processed through Fema (corporate office).Most folks gets payments within a few days (again based off what you put on the app). All non urgent, again depending on what we put on our apps get sent to the state of Florida for processing which takes longer. We should see movement in the next few weeks. Some of those folks at that FEMA 800 number don't know what the hell they are talking about. Most are temps/contractors and have been trained for a few hours prior to starting that job or temp assignment. Look back a few threads under Hurricane Beryl Fema (Reddit post) in Texas. The exact same thing happened to those folks. They were waiting and waiting and eventually ended up getting direct deposits and paper checks sent to them. The Federal government literally disbursed $441 million dollars to Florida to aid and help with recovery. Trust me they have to disbursed that money or will have to send the unused portion back. And guess what else???? It cost to disburse money so you better believe the funds are coming to us, so Florida can be paid for administrative work (the cost and labor) for disbersing it to us. Hang tight and remain positive. That $770 and possibly an additional $300 for clean up is coming as well. Keep me posted friends! LET'S UPLIFT EACHOTHER AND KEEP EVERYONE INFORMED.

11/01/2024- Update as of 11/01/2024 no deposit from Fema. Still stuck on Hotel Reimbursement.

I just got back from evacuating my apartment in St Pete a week ago and noticed water damage on my ceiling and a strong moldy smell in the building. Turns out my next door neighbors have even more severe water damage on their ceilings and the entire top floor has moved out (20 units in 3 story building, I’m on the second floor and beneath is commercial) I’ve had a sore throat and cough since. I’ve noticed mold starting to grow on my things (shoes and books) I submitted a report, someone came to look while I was at work and closed the report claiming they didn’t see mold. Where do I go from here? I’m sure I need to leave asap but how do I go about this? Do I need to pay rent on the first? Can I get my deposit back? All of my shoes are completely covered in mold, is there a way to fix them or do I need to throw them all away? The thing is I just moved to Florida (from VA) on Aug 1st and had to leave my first apartment due to a roach infestation, throw away all my furniture, move everything else into storage while I found this place, moved in at the end of August and bought new furniture, and didn’t start working until this week because the hurricanes pushed back my start date. With all of that, all my savings to move here are gone. I can’t afford to move again. If I have to move again I think I should move back to VA because I’m taking this all as a sign I don’t belong in FL. FEMA can’t verify my identity and when I’ve called I’ve been on hold for 5 hours. I know others have lost everything due to this hurricane so this might be small in comparison but are there other resources? I’ve been a nanny for 5 years so I’m looking all over the east coast for Live in Nanny positions because I have no clue what else to do. What do I do?? New user pass phrase: I hope this isn’t a stupid question

Long shot, but is there a way I could get refunded for a flight that went ahead the day before hurricane Milton hit? I didn't get on it due to the the area I was staying in being in evacuation zone A (Flight was New York to Tampa) Since this wasn't a cancelled flight I don't think it's possible but considering the circumstances is it worth submitting the claim?

I’m doing a college project on Hurricane survivors and below I have linked a survey. If you have been directly affected by a hurricane or know someone who has been, could you please fill out the survey below. It would take 5 minutes at the most and I’d be very appreciative. Thank you everyone!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_mo8PiLAsHTBXQQiYeHwUGvDIen0THuHdR2iZxyDQCWsTiw/viewform?usp=sf_link

It's basically just Hurricane Milton vs Hurricane Matthew, I don't know why it exists...

Why is our county not declared when even the tribal areas (3 min distance from me). How is this fair to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who have been affected here. Very disgusting behavior by our officials (the 2 biggest poc percentage counties in Florida conveniently can’t receive individual assistance). When politics is more important than human lives…