SLIDELL, La. (WGNO) — Legal assistance is being offered to Slidell tornado victims.
“After disasters, we see people scamming people because people are vulnerable,” said Attorney Caroline Newman with Emergency Legal Responders.
Diane Davis said that’s what she’s worried about, scammers trying to take advantage of people whose homes were heavily damaged by last week’s tornados in Slidell. She remembers the problems she faced following Hurricane Katrina.
“People were coming in from out of state thinking you could trust what they were doing. I think I paid probably three times to have one job done because nobody was doing anything right,” said Slidell resident Diane Davis.
Because of that threat, Emergency Legal Responders is offering free help to tornado victims, so they can avoid becoming victim of scammers.
“We try to help people access legal resources. That these things are legitimate, we want to verify these resources that people are seeing in the news are actually doing the thing that they are saying that they are doing,” said Newman.
Newman is warning residents that getting assistance after a tornado could be harder than it is following a hurricane.
“With a tornado, we have to be able to tell the state, tell the parish what damage was. The state government has to prove the damage was high enough that there would be a need for federal assistance,” said Newman.
Newman wants those affected by the Slidell tornados to get the assistance they need now before hurricane season starts on June 1.
“If they don’t have their roofs protected, if they don’t have their houses rebuilt the situation will only get worse. It’s important that we respond to the disaster quickly so that people are able to have their homes protected prior to hitting that disaster season,” said Newman.
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