DETROIT – FEMA officials are going door-to-door in Detroit to make sure people can access the federal help they’re entitled to after severe flooding impacted the area.
The area they focused on the most Wednesday was the Jefferson Chalmers Neighborhood, which is an area that was particularly hit hard by the flooding.
“Everybody around here needs help. You should have been out here. We had to put everything outside. I still got stuff to come outside,” resident Dennis Bell said.
Bell lives on Phillip Street in the neighborhood and said he is still recovering from the flooding. Bell is one of the many residents who need help from FEMA.
Read: FEMA officials visit Detroit to assess flood damage
“I went and looked in the basement. I couldn’t even get down to the basement it was probably up to the third and a half step,” Bell said.
Marty Moore with the DSA Task Force said they want to make sure they can help as many people as possible.
“If they’ve already registered and they got something then we can go into their cases, pull them up by their registration number and see if there’s something there that they may need to send to FEMA like maybe a copy of their insurance or something,” Moore said.
Bell said he’s hopeful that his neighbors will get funding. They also want to make sure the flooding won’t happen again.
“This is not the first rodeo. It’s, like, what are they going to do about it?” Bell said.
Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist worked to answer that question during a virtual town hall meeting.
“As we can see from the flooding it’s because our pipes are not adequately constructed to be resilient during these massive rainfalls. I want you to know it won’t happen overnight so I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to pass the Transportation Bill and everything is going to be fixed. But what I will tell you is if we pass this Transportation Bill it will begin the process,” Lawrence said.
FEMA mentioned that they have been getting reports of people’s claims being denied. They’re urging people to apply again.