PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENT PROCESS

The Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) is the first step performed to document the impact and magnitude of the disaster on individuals, families, businesses and public property and to gather information for disaster management purposes. The PDA is required to substantiate the disaster assistance requests, such as a declaration of emergency.

The PDA process begins at the local level where the disaster has occurred with the local government assessing their impacts using the Incident Information Questionnaire. If the impacts document that assistance is needed, then the local government should request assistance from their county.  The assistance request escalates one-level of government at a time.  (City/town to county to state to federal)

There are two PDA processes depending on the type of damages:

Public Assistance (public property and infrastructure)
Individual Assistance (individuals, families and businesses)

For the details of each PDA process, please click on their link.

As noted in the declaration process, the PDA process becomes a joint process when state assistance is requested.  The state has developed a PDA Action Plan which is an attachment to the Short and Long-Term Recovery Action Plan.

Before a federal declaration can be requested by the Governor a Joint PDA will be conducted with representatives from federal, state and local governments. The information gathered during the Joint PDA is used to determine whether federal assistance should be requested by the Governor and forms the basis for the federal disaster declaration decision.

If you would like to request PDA training for your jurisdiction or agency, please complete the ADEM Training Request Form.

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