Vanessa Williams and her five children haven’t had a working refrigerator since Aug. 11, when devastating storms knocked out electricity at their Gary home for 11 days and destroyed the appliance.

For nearly a month, Williams has used coolers stocked with ice to keep food and water cold.

“You got to make it work somehow,” the 40-year-old office manager said.

But on Tuesday, Williams was able to shop for a new refrigerator and bed mattresses after hers were destroyed by mold thanks to receiving $3,800 in individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I wasn’t expecting to get that money, to be honest with you,” she said. “I’m thankful for it.”

As of Tuesday, FEMA has paid or allocated $17 million in individual assistance in Indiana following the Aug. 11 storms that cut power to hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers in northwest Indiana. Torrential rains left thousands more with flooded homes and businesses in central and southeast Indiana.

The agency has so far approved 3,630 applications out of more than 25,000 submitted.

Residents in Gary, who were the last to have power restored in northwest Indiana, are now some of the first to be approved for federal assistance. Residents in 21 counties designated as major disaster areas are allowed to apply for aid.

Indiana has also started processing payments from the state disaster relief fund for impacted residents who completed an application and met all eligibility requirements. More than 40,000 Hoosiers applied to receive up to $5,000 from the state fund, according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

‘They moved quickly’

Williams said she applied for federal aid on Aug. 26. A week later, a FEMA inspector came to her rental property to assess damage and check that she had proper documentation for lost or damaged items. She received her approved funding four days later.

“They moved more quickly than I thought they would,” Williams said. “It definitely restored my faith in the government, I’ll tell you that.”

She noted she also applied for state disaster relief funding, but hadn’t heard yet whether she was approved.

Gov. Mike Braun said Wednesday that financial aid is being delivered to Hoosiers at a “rapid pace.”

For over a week, the state has coordinated “one-stop shops” around impacted communities to help residents apply for federal and state aid, receive temporary housing, mental health services and navigate insurance claims. Nearly 3,000 people have so far utilized the shops.

‘Stuck in the middle’

But applying for federal aid has been complicated for Alissa Gerber, who owns a salon in Connersville.

Her family’s home was destroyed when the Whitewater River crested around 18 feet over normal flow levels. For around a month, she and her family have lived in a friend’s camper.

Gerber said a FEMA inspector visited her property last week and initially approved $790 in aid, but that doesn’t come close to stabilizing their finances.

The family didn’t have flood insurance, and she and her husband are still paying the mortgage on the home even though it’s uninhabitable. Gerber said they’ll likely have to file for bankruptcy.

The only way they can afford to find more permanent housing is through a low-interest disaster loan available through the Small Business Administration, she said. But the application is complicated and requires detailed documentation she’s struggling to provide.

“We have no idea what we’re doing at this point,” Gerber said. “It’s basically just being stuck in the middle of everything.”

On Tuesday, she still didn’t know if she would be approved for a larger payout through FEMA or receive a disaster loan. Even if they are approved, there are few housing options left in Connersville after the flood.

Williams said she was lucky to have the documentation she needed on hand — including receipts, photographs and utility records — allowing the application process and inspection for her Gary home to go smoothly.

She advised anyone applying for assistance or talking to an inspector to make sure they provide everything required to ensure their application isn’t denied or delayed.

“Let them take pictures. Have your receipts to prove that this is what you had to buy,” Williams said. “They asked for the information and I gave it to them, and it was really relatively easy.”

This article was written by FPI News reporter Carson Gerber.