For Veterans Residing in Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina
 

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Since 09-06-05

From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 6:26 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: For Veterans Residing in Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina



   
Reviewed/Updated: September 2, 2005


 Information Regarding Hurricane Katrina

September 2, 2005

For Veterans Residing in Areas Affected by Hurricane Katrina:


Compensation and Pension Payments:
If you currently receive monthly disability compensation or pension from the Department of Veterans Affairs via electronic funds transfer (electronic deposit), payment will be made to your financial institution as usual.    If you normally receive a paper check, or if you do not have access to your financial institution, you can obtain a paper convenience check by calling 1-800-827-1000 , or by visiting any VA Regional Office in the country.   Please also visit our Compensation and Pension  http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/index.htm web site.

Benefits Claims for Louisiana Residents
New benefit claims or information in support of existing claims should be sent to the Muskogee Regional Office at the following address:

VA Regional Office
P.O. Box 8321
Muskogee, OK 74402-8321

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment:
If you are a current participant in VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program and have questions regarding your benefits, please contact the VA Regional Office in Little Rock at (501) 370-3780 .

Education:
If your school was closed due to the hurricane VA will consider your attendance as continuous.    If you receive active-duty or reserve GI Bill benefits (Ch. 30 or Ch. 1606), you should verify your enrollment until further notice as if your school did not close.   

 

Your can verify enrollment on-line at the WAVE website  https://www.gibill.va.gov/wave/default.cfm or by calling 1-877-823-2378 .    Your payment will not be affected.   

 

If you receive benefits under the Dependents Educational Assistance (Ch. 35) program and were due a payment on 9/1/2005 , the payment was issued as scheduled.

If you are unable to access your funds, please call 1-888-GIBILL1 (1-888-442-4551) for information and assistance.

For more information about Education benefits, please visit www.gibill.va.gov .


Loan Guaranty:
If you currently have a VA home loan and your home has been damaged by the hurricane, you should contact your insurance company as soon as possible to file a loss claim.   

 

If you expect to encounter difficulty making the payments on your mortgage, you should contact your lender/servicer as soon as possible to for guidance and possible assistance.


For more detailed information please visit www.homeloans.va.gov .


For Our Employees:

Contact us:
If you are an employee of the VA Regional Office in New Orleans, LA, please call the Central Area Office at 1-866-435-3782 to let us know you are okay, and to provide a telephone number and email address where we can reach you.    We also want you to know you are all in our thoughts during this extremely difficult time.

Your Paycheck:
All Regional Office employees will be paid as scheduled on September 9, 2005.    Your pay will be based on the amount you received for the last pay period. We will account for leave, overtime, and any other items at a future date.   

 

You will continue to be paid as we develop a plan to get through this disaster.    Our primary concern is that each of you takes care of yourself and your family. We are making arrangements to survey the Regional Office, and will ensure service to our veterans is restored as soon as possible.   

 

We are working on contingency plans, and will likely make arrangements to broker claims to other regional offices for the next several months until the office can be restored.

If you are normally paid with a paper check:
 (Applicable for employees of both the Jackson and New Orleans Regional Offices)

Paper checks are being routed to the Agent Cashier, Financial Services Center, Austin, Texas. Affected employees should contact the Agent Cashier at 512-460-5235 .   

 

Employees who do not receive their salary checks or electronic funds transfer payments should contact the Nationwide Payroll Office at the same number.

Information about the New Orleans Regional Office:
We are making arrangements to survey the Regional Office, and will ensure service to our veterans is restored as soon as possible.    We are working on contingency plans, and will likely make arrangements to broker claims to other regional offices for the next several months until the office can be restored.

Future Updates:
We will continue to provide updates via VA and VBA Internet sites (www.va.gov and www.vba.va.gov ), local television and radio stations, and the following telephone number, which has been set up as a resource for you:
1-866-435-3782

  VA -- Commemorating 75 Years of Service  http://www.75anniversary.va.gov/

Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents


The 2005 edition http://www1.va.gov/opa/vadocs/Fedben.pdf of this booklet lists the variety of federal benefits available to veterans and their dependents.   Selecting the link above will take you to a PDF version of the booklet. VA's Office of Public Affairs (OPA) maintains this booklet.   You may also wish to review other features of the OPA web site by clicking here   http://www1.va.gov/opa/ .

 

Comments concerning the technical aspects of this page may be e-mailed to:   (We have temporarily deactivated the "Webmaster" e-mail link due to the enormous volume of virus generated spam mail.   We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.)

You may address specific benefit questions to the Contact the VA  https://iris.va.gov/ web page.  

 

Thank you. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)