Albany Mall FEMA center closes Friday

ALBANY — The federal and state Disaster Recovery Center at the Albany Mall will close permanently Friday, but the East Albany DRC will remain open, FEMA officials said Tuesday.

The DRC at the mall will close at 7 p.m. Friday.

The DRC at the former Albany police station at 1721 E. Oglethorpe Blvd. will remain open “until further notice,” FEMA officials said. Its hours of operations will continue to be 9 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays. The center is closed on Sundays.

The deadline to register with FEMA for damages from the January storms is March 27.

The East Albany center will be the sole remaining one in the area for survivors of the Jan. 2 and Jan. 21-22 storms and tornadoes. DRCs in Adel, Cordele, Thomasville and Ashburn closed last month. The DRC in Sylvester at at the Worth County Community Center, 1310 N. Monroe St., converted Thursday to a Small Business Administration Disaster Loan Outreach Center.

Those who need to register with FEMA also can do so online at disasterassistance.gov. They also can download the FEMA app from Google Play, the Apple App Store or at fema.gov/mobile-app.

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

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 SBA, the number for the SBA Customer Service Center is (800) 659-2955. Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals may call (800) 877-8339. The SBA website for disaster questions and information is sba.gov/disaster.