public assistance program preliminary damage assessment

Incident assessment is the first step of the recovery process and begins with the completion of the Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA).  The purpose of a PDA for the Public Assistance Program is to acquire data on disaster damages and in-kind repair estimates following a disaster event. This data helps to measure the impacts in dollars and is the foundation for determining whether the Governor should declare the event a state disaster and/or request federal assistance.

Immediately following an event, the applicant representative (e.g., emergency manager) conducts an assessment of damages to determine if the magnitude of the event is significant enough to warrant a request for assistance.  The assistance request escalates one level of government at a time (e.g., city/town to county to state to federal). The PDA Forms that can be used are the PDA Site Estimate and PDA Site Summary forms.  An optional, but highly recommended, PDA Checklist can be used to help in completing the PDA Site Estimate and PDA Summary forms.  It is solely to assist in gathering data for each damaged site.  An Incident Information Questionnaire should also be submitted to ADEM along with the Application for State Assistance.  The information provided on the PDA forms and Incident Information Questionnaire is used to prioritize and assess identified damaged areas.      

For the Public Assistance Program, assessment of damages needs to be broken down by category of work.  The categories are as follows:

Category A – Debris Removal
Category B – Emergency Protective Measures
Category C – Roads and Bridges
Category D – Water Control Facilities
Category E – Buildings and Equipment
Category F – Utilities
Category G – Parks, Recreational Facilities and Other Items

The PDA Guidelines is a tool that is available for you to use. This guideline will walk you through the seven different categories of work listed above; it provides a description of each category and eligible activities within that category of work. 

ADEM will include this information within the PDA Action Plan for Public Assistance for the specific event.  Following ADEM’s review of the documentation submitted, representatives from the Public Assistance Program will contact the applicant(s) requesting assistance and conduct a joint damage assessment.  The confirmation of the damage impact from the event allows the Director of the Arizona Division of Emergency Management to accurately brief the Governor and other parties of interest and provide recommendation with regard to the Governor declaring an emergency in support of the requesting entity.

Should the state determine that the recovery effort is beyond state and local capabilities, state officials will request the FEMA Regional Office (Oakland, CA) to conduct a joint federal/state/local PDA.  When FEMA’s validation of the impacts is complete, the Governor will determine whether or not federal assistance should be requested. 

If you would like to request PDA training for your jurisdiction or agency, please complete and submit the ADEM Training Request Form.  An example of the presentation can be obtained by clicking here.  Additional information regarding Preliminary Damage Assessment for the Public Assistance Program can be found within our Disaster Recovery Guidebook and our Public Assistance Standard Operating Procedure, Section 4.

Contact
For additional information regarding the Recovery Program, please contact us for your area of interest.