Hoosiers whose homes or jobs were hit by the severe storms of mid-August have two deadlines coming up. The Indiana Department of Homeland Security says people in 24 counties have until Oct. 25, 2026, to apply for FEMA Individual Assistance. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development says people in 21 of those counties have until Oct. 27 to file for Disaster Unemployment Assistance. The state’s disaster recovery page was last updated on Oct. 8 and lists no extension for either date.

The 24 counties

Twenty-one counties have been eligible for FEMA Individual Assistance since Aug. 25: Carroll, Dearborn, Decatur, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Henry, Lake, LaPorte, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Porter, Pulaski, Randolph, Rush, Tipton, Union and Wayne. Cass, Pike and Putnam counties were added on Sept. 25, which brings the total to 24.

The unemployment program covers only the first 21. Cass, Pike and Putnam are on the FEMA list but not on the list for Disaster Unemployment Assistance. A worker in one of those three counties who lost work to the storms is not covered by the Oct. 27 date.

The state says the disaster is FEMA-4933-DR, a major disaster declaration approved by President Trump on Aug. 25, 2026. Oct. 25 falls on a Sunday, so anyone in the 24 counties with storm damage who has not applied has two weekends left to do it online.

The Oct. 25 FEMA date comes two days before the Oct. 27 unemployment date, and each one has its own application.

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Applying for FEMA aid

Applications go through DisasterAssistance.gov, or in person at the One-Stop Shops, Mobile Registration Intake Centers and other events the state lists. The FEMA site also lets applicants enter an address to find the closest Disaster Recovery Centers. The state’s page does not list a FEMA phone number.

The state reports that, as of Oct. 7, FEMA Individual Assistance has paid out or allocated $134.4 million, with more than 32,300 applications approved. The National Flood Insurance Program had paid $18.1 million to policyholders as of Oct. 2. The state also says Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority hotel vouchers now last up to 60 days instead of 30, and households already using vouchers get 30 more days from their original start date.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance

The unemployment program is for people who lost work or had it interrupted by the storms on or after Aug. 11, 2026, and who do not qualify for regular unemployment benefits from any state. The Department of Workforce Development says in its announcement that workers must be employed or self-employed in one of the 21 counties, or have been scheduled to start work there. The lost income must be directly caused by the disaster, and the work must have been the person’s main source of income. Applicants must be a U.S. national or qualified alien.

Qualifying situations include damage to a workplace, an injury caused by the disaster that prevents work, becoming the main support of a household after the head of household died, and a federal facility closure. Eligibility is determined weekly.

The order matters. The department says applicants should file a regular unemployment claim first, through the state’s Uplink system. If that is denied, they apply for the disaster program, using forms on the department’s DUA page. People without a computer or phone can use unemployment access kiosks at WorkOne centers. The Customer Support Center answers at 1-800-891-6499 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday. An application filed after Oct. 27 is untimely unless the applicant shows good cause.

Loans for damage and business losses

The Small Business Administration has its own dates, and they are not the FEMA dates. Returning applications for physical damage loans are due Oct. 25, 2026, and economic injury loans for businesses and nonprofits run to May 25, 2027. Applications go to sba.gov/disaster, by phone at (800) 659-2955 or by email to [email protected].

Getting both applications in by Oct. 27

For a household in the 21 counties that lost both a home to damage and a paycheck to the storms, the two programs run side by side. FEMA aid is applied for at DisasterAssistance.gov before Oct. 25. The unemployment claim starts with the regular state claim and moves to the disaster form before Oct. 27. Neither application replaces the other.

Before starting, it helps to have the Social Security number, the last or scheduled employer’s name and address, and recent federal tax forms or pay stubs, which the department lists for the unemployment application. For FEMA, the address of the damaged home and the county decide whether the application is in the covered area, so the county list above is the first thing to check.

Anyone unsure of a county or date can look at the state’s disaster page, which carries the same figures and dates the agencies quote. It also covers fraud warnings, and the Department of Workforce Development’s phone line is the place for unemployment questions.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.