New Jersey residents will be able to concentrate on the holidays, enjoy precious time with their family and friends, and still have time to register for FEMA disaster assistance in response to the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

The deadline for Garden State homeowners and renters to apply for FEMA individual assistance for damage and losses has been extended to Jan. 5, 2022.

FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers in Essex and Union counties will remain open until further notice. They were supposed to permanently close on Dec. 4.

The extension allows more time for people living in Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union, and Warren counties to apply for aid such as money for rental assistance, essential home repairs, personal property losses and other disaster-related needs not covered by insurance.

How to apply for FEMA assistance

There are four ways people can apply for disaster assistance:

1. Go online to DisasterAssistance.gov.

2. Call 800-621-3362 (TTY: 800-462-7585) or apply via the FEMA app. The toll-free telephone lines are operating from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. ET, seven days a week.

3. If you use a relay service, such as video service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service. Multilingual operators are available.

4. Visit a DRC near you.

Where are the Disaster Recovery Center locations?

Essex County: Kmart, 235 Prospect Ave., #9413, West Orange, N.J., 07052

Union County: O'Donnell Dempsey Senior Community Center, 618 Salem Ave., Elizabeth, N.J., 07208

Hours at both centers are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8.a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, visit fema.gov/disaster/4614

Where NJ's 'red wave' of the 2021 election was reddest

In 2017, Gov. Phil Murphy won the election by 14.1 percentage points, a margin exceeding 303,000. His re-election was much closer, an 84,000-vote, 3.2-point victory. He and others talked about a ‘red wave’ of Republican voters in the electorate, and certified results show which counties turned red most.

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