SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Over the weekend, several new counties in our area have qualified for FEMA disaster relief, but some say they’re hearing conflicting information about the benefits and don't know why they’ve been denied. With damage from Helene no longer as visible as when the storm first came through, a lot of the damage now is emotional and financial. "It's scary. I don't know what we're going to do now," Samantha Hutcheson, a Pooler resident, said. "I've tried everything to help us. I don't want to lose my job at gulfstream, I don't want my freshman to flunk out on his first year of high school. This is all just too much, and we can't seem to catch a break no matter what we do. We feel very lost in the system." Hutcheson said she had to leave her home after the storm, and she has no other option but to stay in a hotel without a car where the bus can't even get her kids for school. "The storm came, knocked out our power for a week," she said. "With the power being out, we took on a lot of water damage, the floors buckled in the bedrooms, the whole entire house shift, things started to mold, our clothes, we had to throw our couch away." When the mom of two applied for FEMA assistance, she said that she was denied and told she wouldn't be reimbursed for her hotel stay or any of the food she had to throw away. "Denial after denial, between the date, because I couldn't provide pictures of my refrigerator because I cleaned it out because I wasn't going to let it get bugs and stuff," Hutcheson said. "I couldn't provide pictures of the damage I took on because we had to leave so much and pack up everything." Toombs County woman loses everything again after Hurricane Helene She wasn't the only one who was denied benefits. Heather Nelson, a resident of Savannah, said that her son also had surgery right before the storm, and she wasn't able to care for him properly without power for almost a week. "The application actually asked, FEMA asked, if there's health issues in the house, if you have any people that have the health issues, and what did you either lose or what couldn't you do because of the power outage or if there's medical supplies or anything like that, and still no response," Nelson said. There seems to be a level of uncertainty about what FEMA covers and what goes through insurance. "I got an email from my landlord when this all happened, stating that all the tenants should apply because they were offering $750 to people when applying, and that's totally misleading," Nelson said. According to FEMA's website, they can't make people whole after a loss. They provide, "Financial assistance and direct services to eligible individuals and households who have uninsured and underinsured necessary expenses and serious needs." FEMA also encourages anyone to report loss/damage to their insurance first before applying for their benefits. Other misconceptions are also circulating about FEMA money, like that it must be paid back if given out. However, FEMA said that benefits only have to be paid back if given out as an advance before insurance kicks in.