Florida man received $9,200 from FEMA disaster relief 8 days after signing up

• Rick Shiver said Hurricane Milton damaged the awning and ductwork of his home in Port Orange, Florida.
• FEMA transferred him a total of $9,166 for repairs eight days after he applied for assistance, Shiver said.
• He is fortunate to have received help so quickly and plans to continue living in the area, unlike one of his neighbors.

This as told essay is based on a conversation with Rick Shiver, a 72-year-old retired firefighter in Port Orange, part of the Daytona Beach metropolitan area on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I live in Port Orange, Florida. I am originally from St. Augustine and moved here five years ago. I was getting ready to start chemo, and I wanted a place where I didn’t have to do that garden work.

It’s a two-bedroom, two-bathroom manufactured home, and I was able to get it for $20,500. The previous owner had passed away.

This is the first time I have been evacuated. I was a firefighter in Daytona Beach for 25 years, but that was never allowed because we always had to work during storms. But this time it scared me a little. So I went to a little town called DeLand, just west of here, and stayed with my daughter for a few days.

Much of the Port Orange area was underwater. There will be houses that will be demolished.

For three days I couldn’t even get into my house because the water was so high. When I finally could, I saw twisted metal coming out of the canopy. It used to stick out from the front of the house. It was completely gone, only a few upright poles remained standing.

Luckily my house is on the highest spot in the neighborhood, so my water damage was minimal, but I did have a lot of wind damage. My gutters are torn out.

I had never applied for FEMA assistance before. So I had no idea what to expect.

I was shocked that I received money from FEMA so quickly

I initially had no electricity. Even when I did that, my generator’s WiFi didn’t work. The day it came back in, I applied online to FEMA for money to repair the damage and wrote a description. The answers were quite clear. They assigned me a case number.

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I submitted the application on Monday, October 14. The inspector came by on October 21. He was here about 15 minutes. The ductwork for the AC will need to be completely removed and replaced. The canopy needs to be rebuilt and all that metal needs to be replaced.

He took a few pictures, looked at everything and the next day I had money in the bank. That was eight days after I submitted the application.

In total I got $9,166.

I had no idea how long it would take to get the money, but I expected it to be a month or two before I got anything back.

Have you suffered damage from hurricanes or other disasters and have you requested assistance from FEMA? We’d love to hear it. Send an email to reporter Dan Latu at [email protected].

The speed helped: the air ducts will soon become moldy if I don’t get them repaired. And I’m not the least bit interested in breathing mold for the rest of my life.

I don’t know if the $9,166 will cover everything, but I can tell you it will help. I was really grateful for what I got. I’ve never received anything from the government before, so this was nice.

If I don’t have enough to make all the repairs that need to be done, I’ll just pay myself. But that’s fine, I appreciate any help.

The government has done a great job. I’m a registered Democrat and I think the information being spread by a former president is all BS because FEMA works and it works well.

People may be starting to leave Florida, but I want to be with my grandchildren

We got lucky. Over the years we’ve had some hurricanes and missed some bad ones. As intense as this flooding was, it is fortunate that we did not have more deaths.

It’s been a tough month. I think people will leave this area.

One neighbor stopped by after the storm. He heard I had a generator and knocked on my door asking if he could charge his phone. I let him in. When he was done, he said they were moving back to Pennsylvania. He said they can’t take it anymore. He meant it.

I initially thought I might have to move. I’m 72 and can’t keep doing this every few years. But my children live here, I see my grandchildren. I’m not leaving them.