Reporting Damages to Primary Residences and Businesses

The Process

The affected public must report disaster damage to their local city/county emergency management agency, which in turn documents the information on specified forms and sends it to the state Emergency Management Division (EMD) for analysis. This process is called the “Initial Damage Assessment.”

Often, the biggest problem encountered during the initial damage assessment is that the local jurisdictions have not developed a plan and procedure for collecting, documenting, and collating the data so that it can be rapidly transmitted to the state. This causes a delay in reporting damages to the state and will result in a delay in getting appropriate levels of assistance to the affected public.

In addition to a list of damaged properties, the local jurisdiction is also required to submit a supplemental justification (PDF) when reporting damages during the initial damage assessment process. At the very latest, it must be submitted at the time of the Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA). The supplemental justification is a very detailed document that will require input from many different local government departments. Essentially, the Supplemental Justification paints a verbal picture of the local jurisdiction, before, during, and after the event. More than the numbers of homes sustaining major damage or destroyed, this document will paint a verbal picture of the damage and the community’s ability, or lack thereof, to recover without federal assistance.

As much as possible, the Supplemental Justification should be prepared ahead of any disaster, few do, but everyone finds this an overwhelming requirement at the time of an event. Failure to do this correctly could lead to delay or worse - a denial of federal assistance. When the numbers of homes damaged/destroyed is low, the Supplemental Justification carries most of the weight of the request for federal assistance.

When the state Emergency Management Division, in consultation with the affected local jurisdictions, determines that the damages are significant and may warrant a request for federal disaster assistance, it asks the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and the local jurisdiction, as appropriate, to validate the reported damage. This process is called the “Preliminary Damage Assessment” (PDA) and is nearly always a requirement to obtain federal assistance.

The PDA not only validates the damage but it also assesses the need for various other forms of assistance that may be needed i.e., crisis counseling, disaster unemployment, legal services, etc.

Several options for providing disaster assistance are available to a community affected by disaster. Determining which type of assistance the local jurisdiction is eligible for depends on their ability to provide reliable damage assessment information on the appropriate forms and provide that information to the state within specified time-frame and guidelines.

Damage to primary residences is reported on EMD HS Form 1-PR. Physical damage to businesses is reported on HS Form 2-BU. Download the HSHS forms 1-PR and 2-BU Feb 2005 Forms 1-PR and 2-BU (MS Excel), with instructions. Economic Injury to Business is reported on the SBA ESTIMATED DISASTER ECONOMIC INJURY WORKSHEET FOR BUSINESS (Word). Please read the directions before completing any portion of the HS Forms 1-PR and 2-BU.

Sometime in the not too distant future, damages may be reported by agencies on the Internet using a software program called WebEOC.

One thing to keep in mind when recording and reporting damage – no matter which federal agency or voluntary organization provides the assistance, secondary homes and recreational homes are not eligible for disaster assistance of any kind. Detached garages and storage buildings do not count either. So, when you are submitting damage reports, please know that these will not be counted in determining eligibility for disaster assistance.

Orchards and crops should be reported to the local farm service representative and subsequently to the State Farm Service Agency and the state Department of Agriculture.

See Types of Assistance - Criteria and Document Requirements