Albany FEMA Disaster Recovery Center to close March 27

ALBANY – The last of the FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers in Southwest Georgia will close March 27, the final date on which registration for federal disaster assistance from the January storms can be made.

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency say the DRC, located in the former Albany police station at 1721 E. Oglethorpe Blvd., will close at 7 p.m. March 27. The other RDC in Albany and centers that had been set up in Sylvester, Ashburn, Cordele, Thomasville and Adel have already closed.

The East Albany center will be open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon-4 p.m. Saturday. It will be open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. March 27.

Anyone affected by the Jan. 2 storms or the Jan. 21-22 storms and tornadoes can register with FEMA at the center.

those who still need to register also may do so by phone, online or with the the FEMA app.

The FEMA Helpline is (800) 621-3362. Those who are deaf, are hard of hearing or have a speech disability and use a TTY may call (800) 462-7585. Those who use 711 or VRS can use the Helpline number. The toll-free numbers are open 7 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

The disaster registration website, disasterassistance.gov, may be accesed with a computer, smartphone or tablet. The FEMA mobile app is available for download from Google Play, the Apple App Store or fema.gov/mobile-app.

Help is available in most languages, and information on the registration process is available in ASL at www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/videos/111546.

For those who have applied for low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the number for the SBA Customer Service Center is (800) 659-2955 (Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals may call 800-877-8339). The website for disaster questions and information is sba.gov/disaster.