Hurricane Ike Victims Begin to Receive Free On-Site Legal Information and Case Assistance from LSC-Funded Lone Star Legal Aid in Outreach Effort to “Go on for Years”
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Press Release
Source: Lone Star Legal Aid (TX)
Date: September 16, 2008
Lone Star Legal Aid announces: "As humanitarian efforts begin for one of the largest natural disasters in Texas history, [LSC-funded] Lone Star Legal Aid today [September 16, 2008] announces a massive, multi-county free legal outreach initiative for Texans recovering from Hurricane Ike. In cooperation with the Red Cross, community organizations and city officials, Lone Star Legal Aid will begin mobilizing two-person legal teams to work onsite at local shelters and provide free legal advice on FEMA/other government benefits application help, lost/destroyed document problems, evacuee relocation housing and school enrollment questions and other common disaster recovery legal matters. ‘We closed more than 10,000 hurricane cases and provided general legal information to over 50,000 people directly affected by Katrina and Rita,' according to Paul Furrh, Chief Executive Officer of Lone Star Legal Aid. ‘Our experience tells us there's a tremendous amount of important information people need early on in the recovery process that they may not find out about until it's too late, like some of the federal and state aid deadlines with extremely short application windows, including some as short as 30 days from now . . . . Once the critical legal information is circulated to all the people affected by Ike, we'll start working on specific individual legal needs. We expect that work to go on for years,' said Furrh."