Financial & Disaster Assistance

The REALTORS Association of Northeast Wisconsin has secured up to $150,000 from the NAR Relief Foundation for people affected by the July 2026 storms.

This is a grant. You do not pay it back.

Up to $1,000, and what it covers depends on your situation:

• If you own your home — a mortgage payment
• If you rent — hotel costs, the costs of signing a new lease, and temporary housing payments to family or friends you have been staying with

That last one is worth reading twice. If you have been sleeping in a relative's spare room and giving them money toward it, that is an eligible expense. Most people assume it cannot be, and never ask.

You do not have to be buying or selling a house, and you do not need an estate agent. This is a disaster relief fund that happens to be administered by the REALTORS association.

How to apply

1. Fill in the application form (a fillable PDF)
2. Gather what the documentation checklist asks for
3. Send it in as directed on the form

If someone can personally attest to how the storm affected you, a third-party verification form is available and speeds up the review.

The fund is finite — $150,000 across everyone who applies. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason not to leave it until next month.

The Fox Valley Veterans Council runs a Veterans Emergency Fund that can cover housing, utility payments, clothing, food, transportation and other high-priority needs.

Money is paid directly to the creditor, not to you — so apply with the bill in hand.

Even if they cannot fund your request, they connect every veteran who applies to other resources. That is worth knowing: applying is not wasted effort if the answer on money is no.

Who can apply

• A DD214 showing discharge under conditions other than dishonorable, with at least one day of Active Duty beyond training.
• Veterans with a VA Service-Connected Disability who can document it may also be considered.
• Copies of the bills you want considered.

Hmong veterans, and interpreters — please read this

The Council can recognise someone as a veteran by a two-thirds vote of the council, where that person served the United States in a military capacity and was in combat or under imminent threat of combat — even without a DD214.

Their own by-laws give the examples directly: members of the Hmong community who served the United States in a military capacity in Vietnam, and interpreters in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

If you served the US that way and have always been told you are not eligible for veterans' help, you may be eligible here. It is worth asking.

Where the fund reaches

Because of funding and capacity limits, the Emergency Fund covers Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet and Waupaca counties, and nearby Northeast Wisconsin counties by exception. Menasha, Neenah, Appleton, Fox Crossing and Grand Chute are all inside that area.

How to apply

The online form is fastest. There is also a paper PDF application that they convert to a digital one for you.

If the form is hard going, they will help you complete it — over the phone, at LEAVEN, or by appointment at their office. Ask; that offer is theirs, not ours.

In-person meetings are by appointment, generally 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Monday to Friday. The online application is open at any hour.

Catholic Charities provides mental health counseling and peer support, and says it directly: no person is turned away for inability to pay.

920-272-8234 · CatholicCharitiesGB.org

In person at the LEAVEN Community Resource Center, 1475 Opportunity Way, Menasha — the same building many people have already been to for financial help — or by video call if getting there is the problem.

Worth knowing

You do not have to be Catholic, and you will not be asked to be. Peer support means talking to someone who has been through something similar, which some people find easier to start with than a counsellor.

If you have been putting this off because you assumed you could not afford it, that assumption is the thing this entry exists to remove.

In immediate danger? Use 988 or the Winnebago County Crisis Line on 920-233-7707, both 24/7. This entry is for the weeks after, not the worst hour.

The Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity ReStore is running "No One Rebuilds Alone" — storm-affected households can take essential home recovery items and pay what they are able.

How it works:

1. Bring a valid form of identification
2. Select the recovery items you need
3. Pay what you're able

That is the whole process. There is no means test to fill in beforehand and no proof of damage to assemble.

5402 W Integrity Way, Appleton · 920-830-8400

A ReStore carries building materials, tools, appliances, cabinetry, doors, windows, fixtures and furniture — the things that get expensive fast once you move from clearing up to putting a house back together. Worth ringing ahead to ask whether what you need is in stock, since it varies with what has been donated.

Winnebago County released a storm damage viewer built from drone images taken on 29 July 2026 — two days after the tornado, before most cleanup had started.

Open the storm damage viewer

It compares before-and-after imagery side by side, so you can show the condition of a property immediately after the storm against how it looked before.

Why this matters for your claim

The most common documentation problem after a tornado is that people cleaned up first and photographed second. That is a completely reasonable thing to do when your yard is full of debris and it is about to rain again — but it means the worst of the damage no longer exists by the time an adjuster arrives.

This imagery is dated, third-party, and official. That combination is far harder for an insurer to argue with than a homeowner's phone photo, and it is worth citing specifically if you are told your damage looks less severe than you have described.

Use it if:

• You tarped, cleared or started repairs before taking photographs
• Your phone was lost or damaged in the storm and your photos went with it
• You need to show roof damage and cannot safely get up there
• An adjuster's assessment does not match what you saw on 27 July

What it does and does not show

• Covers the Village of Fox Crossing, City of Menasha and City of Neenah. It does not cover Appleton or Grand Chute
• It shows damage at property scale — a missing roof section, a collapsed outbuilding, downed trees. It is not a substitute for close-up photographs of specific damage, cracks, or water intrusion
• It is a snapshot of 29 July only. Anything that happened after that date, including further collapse or rain damage, will not appear

Storm damage assessments are still ongoing. The county has said it will share verified assessment information with the community once that work is complete.

The imagery was flown by a partnership of Calumet County, the City of De Pere, East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, Menasha Police Department, Outagamie County Land & Water Conservation, the Town of Grand Chute, and Winnebago County Land & Water Conservation. The viewer was built by Winnebago County GIS with East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and the Village of Fox Crossing.

Team Rubicon sends trained volunteer teams into storm-damaged neighbourhoods to help homeowners stabilise their properties.

All of their work is free. Their own description names who it is aimed at: people who are uninsured, underinsured, or financially vulnerable. If you have been putting off work because you cannot see how to pay for it, this is the call to make.

310-640-8787 · TeamRubiconUSA.org

What this is and is not

They provide reliable labour — the muck-out, the tree off the roof, the tarping, making a damaged structure safe to be around. They are not a building contractor and will not rebuild your house.

They are a national organisation and their teams move between disasters, so availability is not guaranteed and can change week to week. Ring and ask rather than assuming.

Nobody from Team Rubicon will ask you for money. If someone claiming to be with them asks for payment or a deposit, that is a scam — see Avoid Scams.

Also try Crisis Cleanup on 844-965-1386. It is the shared hotline that several volunteer relief organisations work from, and putting your address into both raises the chance that somebody reaches you.

United Way Fox Cities has opened a Tornado Recovery — Community Response Fund taking donations for storm recovery across the Fox Cities.

Why money rather than goods. It sounds cold next to a truckload of supplies, but cash lets relief groups buy exactly what is short, locally, from businesses that were damaged, with no sorting, storage or hauling cost. Donated goods have to be received, sorted and warehoused by the same volunteers who would otherwise be helping survivors.

This is an established local organization, which matters right now — fake relief funds appear within 48 hours of every disaster and this one is well past that mark. Before giving to any other fundraiser, read the warnings in the Avoid Scams section.

Donate online at the link, or call with questions.

World Relief Wisconsin supports refugees directly affected by the tornado. The county lists them under housing, basic needs and legal services, which in practice means one organisation that will take the whole situation rather than one piece of it.

920-231-3600 · WorldRelief.org/Wisconsin

What they do

• Needs assessment — someone sits down and works out what you actually need
• Case management — one person who knows your situation, instead of explaining it again at every office
• Referrals into the other help listed on this site
• Document recovery
• Housing assistance
• Basic needs assistance

Why document recovery matters here

If your household arrived as refugees, some of your papers cannot be reordered from a county clerk. Immigration documents, resettlement paperwork, records from another country — losing those to a tornado is a different and much harder problem than losing a birth certificate, and it is worth going to people who deal with it specifically.

This does not replace the ordinary routes. For a Wisconsin birth certificate, driver's licence or Social Security card, see "Replacing lost vital documents" under Insurance & Money — that is faster for anything the state itself issued.

Federal individual assistance becomes available only after a presidential disaster declaration covering this county for this disaster. Damage assessments have to be completed and the state has to formally request it.

As of 19 August there is still no federal declaration for the July 27 tornado. Checked directly against FEMA's declaration records, not against a news report: no Wisconsin declaration has an incident window that includes 27 July 2026.

Do not confuse this with the April declaration

This trips people up, and the county's own page sits the two next to each other.

DR-4923 is real, it is active, and Winnebago County is named in it — along with Outagamie and twenty other counties. But it covers the severe storms and flooding of 13–23 April 2026, declared on 30 June. It does not cover the July 27 tornado. Applying to it for tornado damage will not work.

However — if you also had damage in the April storms, and never applied, that is a separate live avenue and the Individuals and Households Program is designated for Winnebago County under it. Deadlines apply and FEMA enforces them, so if that is you, ring 1-800-621-3362 and ask whether the window is still open. Do not assume it is.

What to do about the tornado now

• Report your damage to the county (see Report Your Damage). This is literally what drives a declaration — a threshold of documented uninsured loss has to be met before individual assistance is even possible
• File your insurance claim and keep working it. FEMA covers uninsured and underinsured losses only, and asks for your insurance settlement first. Waiting on FEMA instead of pressing your insurer costs you time you cannot get back
• Document everything, and keep it somewhere other than your phone
• Do not wait on a declaration to take the help that already exists. The $1,000 relief grant, SBA disaster loans and the local funds listed in this section are available now and do not depend on one

If a declaration comes, apply free at disasterassistance.gov or 1-800-621-3362. Never pay anyone to file for you — see the FEMA impersonation warning under Avoid Scams.

Assistance, when it exists, can include temporary housing, home repair and other disaster-related expenses. It is not a replacement for insurance and rarely makes anyone whole.

A local drone service based in the Fox Valley, offering aerial photography and video of roof and property damage suitable for submitting with an insurance claim.

Call to ask about availability, turnaround and pricing — demand for this is high across the damage path right now, so book early if you need it.

Ask them for high-resolution stills as well as video, and for files you can download and keep rather than only a link, so the evidence stays with you.

Before you pay for a flight, check whether you need one. Winnebago County has published a free drone survey flown on 29 July — two days after the tornado, before most cleanup — covering Fox Crossing, Menasha and Neenah. See "See your property from the air" under Report Your Damage. If your property is in it, you may already have dated aerial evidence at no cost.

Paying for a flight still makes sense when you need current condition rather than 29 July, higher resolution than a survey pass, or coverage outside those three municipalities.

The FAA restriction over Menasha ended on 1 August, so ordinary rules apply again. Whoever flies for you should be an FAA-certificated Part 107 remote pilot, and it is reasonable to ask to see the certificate.

Try the grants first. A grant is money you keep; a loan is money you pay back with interest. See the $1,000 relief grant above and the SBA disaster loans entry before borrowing on ordinary terms.

That said, grants are capped and slow, and sometimes you need funds this week. Two local credit unions have set up storm-specific programmes:

• Community First Credit Union — Storm Relief Loans. For transportation, home, and general recovery needs
• Verve — CARES Loan. Aimed at fast access to funds for temporary housing, emergency expenses and recovery

Before you sign anything

• Ask for the APR and the total you will repay, not just the monthly payment. A low monthly payment over a long term can cost far more overall
• Ask whether there is a prepayment penalty. If insurance money arrives later you will want to clear the balance without being charged for it
• You do not have to decide in the room. Take the paperwork home. Any lender unwilling to let you do that is telling you something
• Neither of these is endorsed by this site. They are listed because Winnebago County lists them. Compare them against your own bank

If you are being pressured toward financing by a contractor rather than by a lender you approached yourself, stop and read the Avoid Scams section first — contractor-arranged financing after a disaster is a known pattern.

A common misconception: SBA disaster loans are not just for businesses. Homeowners and renters are eligible too, and SBA is usually the largest source of federal recovery funding for individuals.

Typical programs, once a declaration is in place:

• Homeowners — for repairing or replacing a primary residence
• Renters and homeowners — for replacing damaged personal property
• Businesses of any size and nonprofits — for physical damage
• Economic Injury Disaster Loans — for small businesses that lost revenue

Apply free at sba.gov/disaster or call 1-800-659-2955. Even if you do not want a loan, applying can be a prerequisite for some other grant assistance — worth doing.