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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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March
2006
Volume
10 - Number 2 |
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The Public Assistance (PA) Grant Program, division of FEMA, gives federal assistance to the state and local governments, and to certain private nonprofit organizations (PNP). The program first started as part of the Stafford Act (also known as Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act) which gives the federal government authority to declare a disaster and provide relief by paying a percentage of the repair costs. Assistance through the program is provided in terms of grants which are applied to the aftermath of a disaster, whether it is for responding to the disaster or for recovering from its impact. The grant goes toward repairing, replacing, or restoring disaster-damaged, publicly owned facilities. Federal funds are at least 75% of the eligible cost for emergency actions and permanent renovations. The State decides how the rest of the funds, up to 25%, are split with the claimants. Eligible PNP organizations include medical facilities, custodial care, education facilities, emergency facilities, utilities, museums, libraries, senior citizen centers, homeless shelters etc. The type of work done, as the result of the disaster, is classified as emergency or permanent work. Emergency work includes debris removal from public roads and other public areas, eliminating and reducing immediate threats to the public. Permanent work is anything from minor repairs to replacement or restoring of eligible damaged facilities to their pre-disaster design. Eligible organizations have to follow an application process which begins with attending an information briefing on the program, submitting a form to the state within 30 days of designation of the damage areas, meet with a state allocated public assistance coordinator to assess damages, and construct project worksheets for small or large projects. Project completion deadlines are set from the date the major disaster or emergency is declared. Emergency work should take 6 months where as permanent work should take about 18 months to complete, unless otherwise stated by the State or FEMA. For small projects under $48,900, the grant is based on the cost estimate of the work. Final grants for projects larger than $48,900 are based on actual costs which are disbursed by the State as payments progress. The damages from Hurricane Katrina caused a dire need of federal assistance for the affected areas. Deadline for submitting requests for Public Assistance was extended. The federal share of the expenses for debris removal and emergency protective measures was 100 percent, and 90 percent for repair work. Federal funding for debris removal and emergency protective measures reimbursed through the program was 90 percent of total eligible cost. Federal funding was reduced to 90 percent for all other eligible Public Assistance projects. State and local governments share the remaining costs. In all, the PA program works hand in hand with the FEMA, state and local officials. The final goal of the program is to help communities affected from natural disasters to recover and rebuild. http://www.fema.gov/rrr/pa/overview.shtm http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=21004 |