Tuesday is deadline for federal help for Dolly damage

 McALLEN - Tuesday is the last day to apply for federal assistance for property losses sustained from Hurricane Dolly in July.

To apply, applicants can go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site (www.fema.gov) or call (800) 621-FEMA.

As of Sunday, FEMA had received 37,505 applications for damage assistance following Hurricane Dolly - including 86 that were filed over the weekend.

Hurricane Dolly made landfall July 23 as a Category 2 hurricane that dumped more than a foot of rain across much of the Rio Grande Valley. Widespread flooding inundated the area for weeks after the storm passed.

And the stronger Hurricane Ike that hit the Gulf Coast near Galveston earlier this month has flooded FEMA with new applicants, said Charles Powell, a FEMA spokesman.

But if anyone still needs help following Dolly, they need to call by midnight Tuesday.

"People need to be very persistent," Powell said.

FEMA has awarded $29.6 million in aid to individuals across the Valley as they cleaned up Dolly's mess. And the U.S. Small Business Administration has awarded $9.6 million in loans.

For those people who may have applied for aid but received a denial letter, they can still appeal to FEMA to reconsider the decision, Powell said.

At least several hundred applicants did not properly sign their forms and FEMA denied their application, Powell said. And many others failed to apply for a loan from the SBA, he added.

"If someone gets a denial letter, often it means there's something simple they can work out," Powell said. "Don't just give up. Don't just throw it away."

Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.