With the ongoing widespread flooding and tornadoes affecting the southern United States, I’m compelled to write this post. It is directed towards the emergency managers and incident commanders in affected towns and counties and is meant to provide you with guidance on how to expedite disaster declaration using simple off-the-shelf technology. One of the chief goals of emergency managers should be to decrease the amount of time it takes for survivors to receive the assistance they require. This was my goal for five years while I worked for FEMA as a Geospatial Coordinator. Fulcrum will continue to offer our services to any emergency manager who needs assistance.
When a disaster happens in the United States, it has to reach specifically defined economic thresholds in order for the Federal government to distribute financial assistance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is responsible for appropriating funds to affected states. It is primarily the responsibility of the states to demonstrate to FEMA that they have met the damage levels for the Individual Assistance program. When FEMA declares a disaster, it almost always refers to Public Assistance, not Individual Assistance. Individual Assistance is how the public can receive assistance with their damaged home and rental assistance while they are displaced. This blog post is meant to help emergency managers expedite the disaster declaration process around Individual Assistance and get aid to survivors faster.
Ground preliminary damage assessment
Conducting a fast damage assessment requires trained relief staff in the affected area who understand damage classification. Damage levels can vary significantly, so using FEMA’s classifications and definitions ensures consistency and efficiency. Emergency managers aiming for swift state and federal assistance should rely on FEMA’s standardized damage categories.
Local emergency managers can deploy to damaged areas and begin documenting damage quickly, using FEMA’s required terminology. Real-time sharing of this data with State Emergency Managers at the Emergency Operations Center and FEMA is critical. This approach could significantly expedite the Individual Assistance (IA) declaration process, ensuring faster relief efforts.
After every disaster, FEMA’s GIS specialists build a situation map from all available spatial data, on the FEMA GeoPlatform. The locally produced damage assessment eventually shows up on the disaster map page if is shared with FEMA. Using one of the prebuilt apps in our App Gallery: Earthquake PDA, Fire PDA, Inundation PDA (flood), Wind PDA (tornado), locals would be able to conduct a damage assessment locally using the proper FEMA classification. Subsequently, FEMA, using their FEMA GeoPlatform, could verify the damage assessment for accuracy.
Setup instructions
Setup
Start with one of the prebuilt PDA apps in Fulcrum’s App Gallery: Earthquake PDA, Fire PDA, Inundation PDA (flood), Wind PDA (tornado). Each of these have the definitions FEMA uses to conduct their own damage assessments. In each app, there are menus outlining difference between Destroyed, Major Damage, Minor Damage and Affected. Once the app is in your Fulcrum account, create user accounts for whomever is headed into the affected area.
Deploy
Because Fulcrum is easy to use and includes classification definitions, users can quickly launch the app and start collecting data. Individuals conducting house-by-house assessments don’t need extensive training or years of experience to complete their tasks. The goal involves accurately defining the house’s damage level and cataloging photos for later verification.
When no internet or mobile service is available, caching map tiles on Fulcrum can ensure seamless functionality. Zoom into the target area and scroll around to cache the necessary map tiles. Alternatively, load offline MBTile maps through the website and transfer them to each device.
Quick tip: Place each data point directly on the house being assessed, not in the street where the assessor stands.
Share
To set up sharing, enable data shares from the app dashboard. While your assessment is on going you can send the CSV link to the FEMA Geospatial Coordinator in your region. You can find the correct individual by looking them up on this FEMA site. If you can’t find the Geospatial Coordinator for your region, call the FEMA Regional Office and ask for the contact information.