FEMA wants flood victims to open doors for damage survey: ‘We want to understand the impact’

Federal disaster officials are urging the public to speak with survey teams going door-to-door this week to assess flood damage from earlier this month.

If more people report flood damage in the survey, there’s a greater chance the Federal Emergency Management Agency releases grant money to Chicago-area homeowners, officials said.

“When these officials come to your door, we do want to hear the story,” Tom Sivak, FEMA regional administrator, told reporters Wednesday at Morton College in Cicero. “We want to understand the impact of what took place in that flooding event.”

Ten survey teams fanned out Tuesday to record water damage from the July 2 storm that dropped 9 inches of rain in a matter of hours and flooded thousands of homes on Chicago’s West Side, suburban Cicero, Stickney and Berwyn.

The results of the survey could allow the state to petition the Biden administration to send individual grants and loans to homeowners through FEMA.

Homeowners should be as detailed as possible when reporting flood damage to survey teams, which do not record personal information, Sivak said.

Homeowners should not wait for federal assistance to begin cleaning flooded basements or contacting insurance companies, he said. The assistance could be weeks or months away, or may not come at all if the state doesn’t petition the president or Biden declines to send federal aid.

About 18,000 homes were damaged by flooding, according to a preliminary estimate based on 311 calls and other data, said Greg Nimmo, recovery division chief for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security.

Survey teams composed of four to six people each hit the streets Tuesday. Mayor Brandon Johnson walked with one survey team in the Austin neighborhood. Several homeowners told him they were still living without hot water and broken heaters.

The survey teams, five in Chicago and five in the suburbs, will survey between 1,200 to 1,500 properties a day until the end of the assessment, he said. The teams will not knock on every door — only enough homes for FEMA to get an accurate idea of the extent of the damage.

If FEMA aid is approved, homeowners could apply for two grants of up to $40,000 each: one for lost contents, the other for repairs and cleanup, Nimmo said. But homeowners who get a grant will likely receive $3,000 to $7,000 depending on their circumstances, he said.

Homeowners may also be able to apply for low-interest loans, which have proven effective post-disaster in other areas, he said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation earlier this month, but that only unlocked emergency resources, not money for home and business owners, which is what the FEMA grants would provide, Nimmo said.

Although federal survey teams are just hitting the streets, county survey teams have been working since right after the storms, said Ted Berger, executive director of Cook County’s Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security.

Berger called the storm a “once-every-500-year-type flooding event” that’s becoming more common.

Cook County last received FEMA grant assistance in 2013 for widespread flooding, Berger said.

Elected officials called for federal money to update aging water infrastructure to prevent future flooding.

“I want to emphasize that this is a federal issue,” said Frank Aguilar, a Cook County commissioner. “We need federal money to update our water mains .... The system is over 100 years old.”

Water entered the basements of many homes in the Austin neighborhood through drain pipes.

County Commissioner Monica Gordon said water infrastructure is a “critical priority that requires immediate attention.”