Disaster Declaration overview and Info

Disaster Declarations Overview and Disaster Declaration Process

FEMA released a video detailing the Disaster Declaration process. This short, 5-minute video provides viewers a high-level overview of the declaration process for Federally declared disasters. Some of the topics covered in this video include Preliminary Damage Assessments, Declaration Types, Available Assistance Types, and Mitigation. This is a great starter video for anyone that has never been through or does not understand the disaster declaration process. This video can also be shared with people in your community to help communicate the disaster declaration process as well.

To watch, link to the the video.

Disaster Declarations for Kentucky

Link to the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management (KYEM) Recovery Branch website for detailed information. http://kyem.ky.gov/recovery/Pages/default.aspx.

To gain knowledge and have a better understanding of the declaration process and the county components and data needed to successfully be included within a disaster declaration link to http://kyem.ky.gov/recovery/Pages/New-Declaration-Process-.aspx.

What is it? An interactive tool to allow you to explore historic federal disaster declarations by state, county, hazard, and year.

FEMA launched a new data visualization tool that enables the public to see when and where disaster declarations have occurred across the country. The Public Data Visualization Tool, accessible at www.fema.gov/data-visualization, allows users to view and interact with FEMA data.

FEMA also launched a new interactive tool to allow the public to explore currently-available FEMA grant data. FEMA added Individual Assistance to the data visualization, which includes financial grants from the Individuals and Households Program. This program provides financial help or direct services to survivors if they are unable to meet their needs through other means through Housing Assistance and Other Needs Assistance (including personal property and other items).

FEMA Adjusts Consumer Price Index for 2022

October 1, 2021

FEMA has provided financial guidance for all disasters declared on or after Oct. 1, 2021. This guidance reflects the 2021 Consumer Price Index adjustment of certain indicators for the Individual Assistance and Public Assistance programs.

The index adjusted annually for inflation by the U.S. Department of Labor—

The increases remain in effect for the next 12 months. For more information visit the FEMA website.

FEMA Advisory: Disaster Financial Management Guide

April 16, 2020

FEMA released the “Disaster Financial Management Guide” to support jurisdictions in establishing and implementing sound disaster financial management practices, which are critical for successful response and recovery. The guide takes an all-hazards approach and addresses a broad range of issues and contains concepts, principles and resources applicable to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic response environment.

All jurisdictions, regardless of size, need to develop and implement disaster financial management considerations and practices to track, calculate and justify the costs of an emergency; support local reimbursement reconciliation; avoid de-obligation of grant funding; and effectively fund and implement recovery projects and priorities.

The Disaster Financial Management Guide identifies the capabilities and activities necessary to prepare and successfully implement disaster financial management while maintaining fiscal responsibility throughout response and recovery operations. This includes considerations and practices necessary to track, calculate and justify the costs of an emergency; support local reimbursement reconciliation; avoid de-obligation of grant funding; and effectively fund and implement recovery projects and priorities. Fiscal and grant regulations are strict and apply to all jurisdictions, so it is imperative that jurisdictions have robust scalable, flexible and adaptable disaster financial management plans and processes in place pre-disaster for all types of incidents.

To view the guide and other information, visit https://www.fema.gov/plan.

Unified Federal Environmental and Historic Preservation Review

Background: The Unified Federal Environmental and Historic Preservation Review Process (UFR Process) was established on July 29, 2014, by the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among eleven federal agencies involved in the environmental and historic preservation (EHP) reviews associated with disaster recovery assistance. The UFR Process focuses on the federal EHP requirements applicable to disaster recovery projects following a presidentially declared disaster under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Through the UFR Process, federal agencies that fund or permit disaster recovery projects and those that perform EHP reviews associated with the decision-making process will coordinate their independent EHP review processes leading to expedited decision making, which can result in faster delivery of assistance and implementation of recovery projects. The UFR Process recognizes the important role of tribes, state agencies, localities and the stakeholders working together with federal agencies to coordinate EHP reviews.

The UFR Process provides federal agencies with opportunities to expedite EHP reviews through enhanced coordination for all presidentially declared disasters.

Unified Federal Environmental and Historic Preservation Review Library

FEMA’s Unified Federal Environmental and Historic Preservation Review (UFR) Library contains documents associated with UFR Process development and implementation. These documents, the Tools and Mechanisms, are for federal, tribal, state, and local stakeholders, including applicants and EHP practitioners.

The Tools and Mechanisms unify and expedite environmental and historic preservation (EHP) review for proposed disaster recovery projects because they can be in place before a disaster occurs, are scalable to the needs of a particular disaster, empower applicants, enable EHP practitioners to share data, apply existing efficiencies within EHP requirements to disaster recovery projects, and introduce new compliance pathways for specific EHP requirements.

The library contains the following:

UFR Frequently Asked Questions
UFR Newsletters
Practitioner and Leadership Briefing Packages
Applicant Guide
Practitioner Guidance
Data Standards List and Instructions
Disaster-Specific Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Interagency Meeting Checklist
EHP Agency Point of Contact Lists and Instructions
EHP Disaster Recovery Skills Checklist
UFR Process Glossary
IT Resources List and Instructions
UFR MOU
Prototype Programmatic Agreement for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act
Template Environmental Checklist for FEMA and HUD
UFR Fact Sheets for various stakeholders