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Release Date: September 29, 2003
Release Number: 1492-25

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Baltimore, MD - Some Marylanders have experienced telephone difficulties when trying to register for disaster assistance. State and federal disaster officials encourage everyone to be patient and persistent.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) toll-free registration number for disaster assistance is 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY: 1-800-462-7585. It is available seven days a week from 7 a.m. to midnight until further notice. The deadline to register is November 18, 2003.

FEMA has four teleregistration centers in Maryland, Texas, Virginia and Puerto Rico to respond to calls from disaster locations throughout the United States and its territories. In addition, three Internal Revenue Service (IRS) centers have been contracted to assist in answering registration calls from disaster victims. At present, 958 trained specialists are answering applicants' calls for disaster assistance.

Calls to the toll-free teleregistration number are being answered in an average of 30 seconds, although some may take as long as two minutes before an operator answers. Some 90 percent of these calls have been answered successfully. The unanswered calls usually are due to people hanging up too soon. Once a call is answered, the process of registration takes an average of 14 minutes.

The highest volume of calls comes in between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. The best times to call the registration number are before 10:00 a.m. and after 6:00 p.m.

In just one day, Thursday, September 25, nearly 20,000 registration calls were made by residents of the five states that are under disaster declarations as a result of the recent storms. Of these, 1,777 came from disaster victims in Maryland. As of September 29, nearly 8,900 Marylanders were successfully registered for disaster assistance.

On March 1, 2003, FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FEMA's continuing mission within the new department is to lead the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates proactive mitigation activities, trains first responders, and manages Citizen Corps, the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration.

Last Modified: Friday, 03-Oct-2003 09:02:12