Hurricane Sandy uprooted the lives of many people on the East Coast last week, making even simple things like paying a cell phone bill a hardship. Verizon Wireless announced this week that in order to help ease the burden for is East Coast customers left without power, cell service, Internet or even landlines, it will waive fees for all domestic voice and text usage.

Any customers in New York and New Jersey areas will have those charges lifted from between Oct. 29 and Nov. 16, said Verizon (via PCMag).

In a FAQ about the program Verizon said:

“Verizon Wireless continues to focus its efforts to assist customers in the regions hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy. We announced November 4th that customers in portions of New York and New Jersey will not be billed usage charges for domestic voice and text usage incurred between October 29th and November 16th 2012. No action is required by our customers to be eligible for this program.”

So why Nov. 16 as the end date? Verizon says it’s because it’s optimistic and”we’re hoping that the lives of our customers impacted by [the] storm will have returned to pre-Sandy normalcy.”

Monthly access charges will still be levied, but Verizon will waive any late fees on payments from Sandy victims.

See below for the counties included in the program, and if you’re not listed call 1-800-922-0204 if you think you have a case:

New York: Bronx County, Kings County, Nassau County, New York County, Putnam County, Queens County, Richmond County, Rockland County, Suffolk County, and Westchester County.
New Jersey: Atlantic City, Bergen County, Burlington County, Camden County, Cape May County, Cumberland County, Essex County, Gloucester County, Hudson County, Hunterdon County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Monmouth County, Morris County, Ocean County, Passaic County, Salem County, Somerset County, Sussex County, Union County, and Warren County.

AT&T and Sprint haven’t done something quite like what Verizon is doing, but both did say they’d waive late fees for hurricane victims as well.

Verizon Waives Voice, Text Charges for Sandy Victims [PCMag]

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