Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Builds FEMA Appeals Network

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Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Builds FEMA Appeals Network by Mary Chisolm Rios, Staff Attorney, Disaster Assistance Team, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

It has been over four months since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Port Aransas and Port O’Connor and ripped through the central Texas coast with 130 mph winds. 1 Texans still have a long road to recovery ahead. Many residents are still waiting for the FEMA assistance they need to begin rebuilding damaged homes or securing new permanent housing. Some residents have been denied FEMA assistance altogether; others received FEMA awards far below what they need to return their homes to livable conditions. Still others have yet to receive any decision on their FEMA applications at all. The Disaster Assistance Group at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA), led by Tracy Figueroa, has provided direct representation to over 200 Harvey survivors pursuing FEMA assistance. To expand its capacity, that group has worked closely with TRLA’s Private Attorney Involvement Group—including coordinator Pablo Almaguer and staff attorneys Adriana Leal and myself— to organize, train, and support a broad network of volunteer attorneys and law students who have stepped up to help with FEMA appeals.

Photo Credit: https://foxrio2.com/tag/fema/

Early on after Hurricane Harvey, several law schools contacted TRLA directly to offer assistance. Under the leadership of Professor Davida Finger of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, faculty from law schools across the nation began accepting cases and directly representing Texans in FEMA appeals. Schools that accepted appeals include the University of Loyola Chicago School of Law, Harvard Law School, the Earl Carl Institute at Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law, and the University of Georgia School of Law. In addition to the network organized by Professor Finger, TRLA was directly contacted by the following law

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http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/us/hurricane-harvey/index.html.


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Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Builds FEMA Appeals Network by Texas Access to Justice Commission - Issuu