In the event a jurisdiction exceeds or expects to exceed its response capabilities during a major emergency or disaster, chief elected officials should make contact with their TDEM District Coordinator for any help needed in navigating disaster response and recovery efforts.
Declare and Submit a Local State of Disaster: The chief elected official of the jurisdiction has the responsibility to declare a local state of disaster requesting disaster recovery assistance.
Disaster Summary Outline: As soon as possible, all jurisdictional departments should begin gathering response costs and initial damage estimates. These figures need not be exact but are necessary to complete the Disaster Summary Outline (DSO). The DSO is the first snapshot TDEM receives regarding the extent of damages. DSOs will automatically be sent to the State Operations Center (SOC) through the form found at https://dso.soc.texas.gov
pSTAT: The Public Assistance State of Texas Assessment Tool (pSTAT) is a mobile platform to capture storm-related damages to public infrastructure, debris, and other FEMA designated categories of work.
Federal Declaration Process: If the disaster is of such magnitude that local and state resources are inadequate and areas cannot recover without federal assistance, the governor may request that the president of the United States federally declare the disaster. All emergency and major declarations are made solely at the discretion of the president of the United States. Federal assistance is not intended to fully compensate a community for losses but to supplement available resources and prevent conditions from which the community could not responsibly recover.
If it is apparent that a presidential disaster declaration may be necessary to assist in the recovery of the impacted area, the state will contact FEMA Region VI and request joint (local, federal, state) Preliminary Damage Assessments. Local damage assessment information is typically gathered after lifesaving and life-sustaining needs have been addressed and serves as the foundation for actions and decisions made in later phases of the incident. Local government representatives are critical to effective joint PDA teams. FEMA Public Assistance (PA) and Individual Assistance (IA) programs require separate assessments prior to requesting federal disaster assistance.
Federal regulation requires that both the state and each county surpass their FEMA threshold to be eligible for PA. Jurisdictions must show they have uninsured damages that exceed this threshold, that can be found at County Dollar Thresholds.
When evaluating the need for IA, FEMA will consider the following six factors for states and territories:
When evaluating the need for PA, FEMA will consider the following six factors for states and territories:
The Public Assistance – State of Texas Assessment Tool (pSTAT) helps the state identify disaster damages to public infrastructure and to assist emergency management officials assess the damages that occurred. This data will determine if the state of Texas and our communities meet federal thresholds for disaster assistance. The pSTAT is for local government use and should not be released to the public.
TDEM’s Network Attached Software (NAS) is the repository for submitting documentation to certify damage claims submitted through the pSTAT. To certify damage claims, FEMA requires: insurance documents and schedule of values, force account labor and equipment, materials, contracts, and any other supplementary information to support the damage claim.
The Public Assistance (PA) Program provides grants to state, territorial, local, and federally recognized tribal governments and certain private non-profit entities to assist them with the response to and recovery from disasters. Specifically, the program provides assistance for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and permanent repair, restoration, reconstruction, or replacement of eligible public facilities and infrastructure damaged or destroyed in a disaster. All work and costs under this program must be in accordance with PA program eligibility requirements as outlined in the Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide (PAPPG).
The TDEM Recovery has staff in all TDEM regions to assist state, tribal, territorial, and local governments and certain types of private non-profits in navigating this grant program.
Emergency Work: Emergency protective measures conducted before, during, and after an incident are eligible if the measures:
Permanent Work: Permanent Work (Categories C–G) is work required to restore a facility to its pre-disaster design (size and capacity) and function in accordance with applicable codes and standards.
Debris management is one of many competing priorities agencies must manage during such events. It is important that disaster debris be properly managed so as to protect human health, comply with regulations, conserve disposal capacity, reduce injuries, and minimize or prevent environmental impacts. All temporary debris management sites are required to have authorization from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Texas Historical Commission (THC) for any staging, burning, chipping, or sorting of debris to ensure all regulation, law and policies have been adhered to.
The Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) is FEMA's primary method for providing financial assistance to State, Local, and Tribal governments responding to wild land fires. Because wildfire’s behavior is so unpredictable it can change direction unexpectedly, spread across highways, and destroy homes and buildings.
Senate Bill 6, by Sen. Kolkhorst, from the 86th Legislative Session relates to emergency and disaster management, response, and recovery. The Disaster Recovery Loan Program was created as a result of recommendations contained in the ‘Eye of the Storm’ report. This program allows eligible counties, municipalities, and school districts who meet the qualifications to access an application for a loan program, to be established by TDEM.
The disaster recovery loan account was created as an account in the general revenue fund with the comptroller, to be administered by TDEM. Money in the account shall be used to provide short-term loans to eligible political subdivisions.
Eligibility
Loan Conditions
Disaster Recovery Loan Application
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