As residents continue to clean up from last month’s storms and tornadoes, federal and state officials will be inspecting damage.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security are now conducting joint preliminary damage assessments in several counties. That includes going door-to-door to affected homes in Elkhart County.
The county’s emergency management director, Jennifer Tobey, says this sort of follow-up is typical, when there’s significant damage. "We have so much damage that they are coming to do that, so that’s good news," Tobey said in a Facebook video Wednesday. "That’s good news because that means that individual assistance, small business association, those types of clubs will probably be activated to help us."
While the state says help from FEMA isn’t currently available, the assessments help determine whether it should request a federal disaster declaration to make it available in the future.
Tobey said assessment teams will include four or five people from FEMA, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and local agencies. All of them should have identification and tell residents which agency they’re from.
"They’re not ICE," Tobey added. "They’re not entering anybody’s property without permission. They’re literally looking at addresses that have been called into my department, to 211, to 311, that we’ve pushed to them, that we’re asking them to put their eyes on."
The state says assessment teams will also visit with government officials and nonprofit groups in several counties, including Elkhart, LaPorte and Marshall.
In Elkhart County, Tobey said she’s still working with people whose homes were destroyed or suffered major damage. "This is a long process," Tobey said. "This could take six or eight months, and for some of you it’ll seem impossible, but the end will be there, and we’re going to be right next to you until the end."
Going forward, she said the Elkhart County Community Organizations Active in Disaster will be sending letters to damaged homes still awaiting cleanup.
