FEMA Follow-Up Calls Lead to Millions in Disaster Assistance for West Virginians

FEMA Follow-Up Calls Lead to Millions in Disaster Assistance for West Virginians

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – FEMA recovery efforts likely conjure images of safety vests and disaster sites. But a significant recovery effort in the past 10 months under FEMA reforms now includes headsets, mobile phones and office cubicles.

Staff from FEMA’s Enhanced Applicant Services (EAS) work from call centers eight hours a day, six days a week to follow up on applications submitted after a federal disaster is declared.

In West Virginia, EAS specialists have been calling survivors to check on the status of their applications, identify issues that could be slowing the process, discover additional assistance for which they may be eligible, or answer any questions a survivor might have.

While the phone conversations might be simple, their effects have been profound. In West Virginia, which has had four federally declared disasters since May 2024, EAS outreach has led to more than $4.1 million in additional assistance. That’s nearly 12 percent of the $35 million helping thousands of applicants.

Just weeks into its latest disaster resulting from February 2025 flooding, EAS calls have led to more than three-quarters of a million dollars that otherwise would have been left on the table for more than 1,000 state residents – already the highest rate of the four disasters declared.

Those millions of disaster dollars helping West Virginians are the result of more than 6,200 calls and conversations between EAS specialists and nearly 2,600 survivors. 

This extra effort has been essential to FEMA’s recovery mission and demonstrates the importance of the personal touch in helping survivors obtain all the disaster assistance to which they’re entitled.

Read more about FEMA’s Enhanced Applicant Services in West Virginia at https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20250321/fema-reaching-out-west-virginians-phone.

For more information on West Virginia’s disaster recovery, visit emd.wv.gov, West Virginia Emergency Management Division Facebook page, www.fema.gov/disaster/4861 and www.facebook.com/FEMA.