Gov. Blagojevich makes additional services available for hurricane victims and relief efforts           

Employment services to help process unemployment claims

Financial institutions to help displaced victims open checking accounts

[SEPT. 9, 2005]  CHICAGO -- Stepping up his efforts to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Thursday ordered his state agencies to make additional services available, both to displaced victims currently housed in Illinois and for the relief efforts being conducted in the Gulf Coast states. The governor has directed the Illinois Department of Employment Security to help displaced victims housed in Tinley Park and Alton process unemployment claims and facilitate job searches and job training. The governor has also asked banks and thrifts in Illinois to help victims open checking accounts and get access to other basic financial services. Additionally, the governor will send up to 100 state employees to Louisiana to help officials process services to citizens in the more remote areas of the state.

"Displaced victims have lost their homes, their possessions and their jobs. Our help to them cannot be limited to housing, medical care, clothing and food. We have to do everything we can to get them back on their feet, and that includes helping them with their unemployment claims and assisting them in finding jobs here," Blagojevich said. "Victims also need basic financial services, like opening a checking account and re-establishing credit, and we're asking financial institutions in Illinois to give them a hand."

Department of Employment Security employees will work with Central Management Services staff to set up remote computer stations in the state facilities in Tinley Park and Alton, where the first displaced victims to arrive into Illinois have been housed. Through these remote stations, the Department of Employment Security will be able to help individuals process unemployment claims and receive timely and useful information about job opportunities in Illinois. Since the onset of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina, the department has been working with its sister agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi to take claims from individuals dislocated by the hurricane and flooding. The department has processed these first claims through its Moline branch office.

Responding to the governor's direction, up to 100 state employees will travel to Louisiana this weekend to help the Louisiana Department of Social Services provide services to victims in hard-to-reach areas of the state. Central Management Services Director Paul Campbell has asked other agency directors to seek volunteers for this mission. The majority of the volunteers will be clerical employees, with the remainder including security personnel, information technology specialists, drivers and mechanics. Due to the lack of basic amenities in the state, the Illinois contingent will take along provisions to be totally self-sustaining for the entirety of their deployment, which could last up to two weeks. Besides food, water, tents and portable toilets, the groups will take along generators, computers and other office supplies.

The governor has also directed the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to reach out to state-chartered banks and thrifts and ask them to provide free check cashing, eliminate ATM services fees, and establish checking and saving accounts for displaced victims now residing in Illinois.

Additionally, Blagojevich asked the Illinois Department of Revenue to extend filing deadlines until Oct. 31 for taxpayers who owe Illinois taxes and are from counties damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

This week, Illinois has received over 300 displaced victims in Chicago and the East St. Louis area. The individuals and families from the Gulf Coast states have received immediate medical care upon arrival and have been transported to state-provided housing in the Tinley Park and Alton areas. Blagojevich announced on Sunday that Illinois is ready to receive as many as 10,000 displaced victims and has called on elected officials, community leaders, not-for-profit organizations, religious institutions and social service providers to match the state's coordinated relief effort to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, Blagojevich has ordered all state agencies to respond in a coordinated manner to help the recovery and cleanup efforts in the Gulf Coast and the victims coming into Illinois. Illinois' efforts to date include the following:

• The governor has set up a toll-free line to provide Hurricane Katrina victims with immediate assistance regarding social services offered by the state of Illinois, including health care, crisis counseling, food stamps, K-12 public school registration, and services for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities. The number, 1 [phone], is staffed by the Department of Human Services.

• Blagojevich announced the deployment of nearly 1,100 more Illinoisans to help Louisiana respond to the devastation resulting from Hurricane Katrina. The latest deployments include nearly 600 firefighters who left Monday and 500 National Guard troops that were scheduled to leave for Louisiana on Wednesday. This latest deployment brings to 800 the number of Illinois National Guard troops sent to Louisiana.

• A total of 134 highly trained law enforcement officers from state and local agencies were deployed to Louisiana. These include teams trained to deal with weapons of mass destruction, tactical response teams, underwater dive teams, a mobile command post, various all-terrain vehicles, boats and trucks. The Illinois Department of Transportation contributed 500 yards of fencing and 500 stakes on two lowboys pulled by two semis in the law enforcement convoy.

• The governor dispatched 51 members of the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Team to Louisiana to assist with care of the massive number of sick and injured victims from Hurricane Katrina.

• The governor dispatched an 11-member incident management team to George County, Miss., to assist local emergency managers during the crisis.

• The governor ordered the state's public schools to waive residency requirements and enroll any child displaced by Hurricane Katrina who relocates to live with family, friends or in a shelter in Illinois.

• The state's public universities have also responded to the governor's call to provide accommodations for college students displaced by the hurricane. The state's 39 community colleges will accommodate any Illinois resident displaced from higher education studies because of the hurricane, while Illinois' 12 public universities will also take in students affected by the destruction along the Gulf Coast. Students are encouraged to contact admissions offices at each university to begin an expedited process to enroll in the institution and to access university services like financial aid.

• For hurricane victims, the Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency are offering free camping and have removed length-of-stay requirements at all state parks and historic sites that offer camping.

• The Illinois Department of Transportation has waived certain transportation rules to allow standard-sized semis carrying supplies and materials to Louisiana to be overweight by up to 15,000 pounds when they travel on Illinois roads. Currently, a standard-sized semi is allowed to weigh 80,000 pounds when traveling through Illinois. The Department of Transportation will also grant emergency permits to companies that need to move oversized equipment to the affected area.

• The Illinois Department of Corrections is making available various items through the Illinois Emergency Management Agency's emergency procurement system, including 256,000 half-pints of water, 8,500 blankets, 18,300 clothing items and 2,900 dozen packages of cleaning supplies. The Department of Corrections has also delivered 3,000 bedrolls to the Red Cross in Hillside.

• The Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs has sent toiletries and food to the Tinley Park facility and, in collaboration with several other federal and private agencies, will send food to the Gulf Coast states.

• The Department of Central Management Services has made available its Bureau of Communication and Computer Services to help provide communications assistance to devastated areas. Using broadband services, including high-speed data transmission to remote areas underserved by local carriers, the bureau can provide relief command centers with uplinks for phone and Internet access and can provide links to shelters so displaced individuals can call loved ones.

• The Department of Human Services has sent staff skilled in processing food stamps, to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture implement a disaster food stamp program in 25 Louisiana counties.

• The Illinois Department of Agriculture has made the Expo Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds available to the Illinois State Police as a staging area to consolidate personnel, equipment and supplies in preparation for deployment. The building could be used for several days, providing a secure, easily accessible location for supplies and vehicles of all sizes.

• The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Department of Public Health have dispatched 12 specialists to Louisiana. The specialists are members of four environmental health strike teams being sent by the state at the request of the Louisiana Emergency Management Agency. Their expertise includes drinking water, sewage, food safety and food salvage. In addition, two Environmental Protection Agency trucks, stocked with emergency response equipment, and two Department of Public Health vehicles have been deployed.

• The State Emergency Operations Center continues to be fully activated with representatives of more than a dozen state agencies and Illinois Emergency Management Agency personnel, who are assessing assets their agencies could provide to assist disaster response and recovery efforts. The center is in continual contact with Emergency Management Assistance Compact officials in the affected states to coordinate requests for assistance with assets Illinois can offer.

[News release from the governor's office]