Public Assistance Damage Assessment

Reporting Public Agency Damages
Preliminary Damage Assessment

Purpose

At the onset of an emergency or disaster, before any federal funding is provided, the Washington Emergency Management Division (EMD) must determine the extent of the damages sustained by state and local public facilities. Through the Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) process EMD obtains the information necessary to determine if the criteria has been met to forward a request through the Governor to FEMA for a Presidential Disaster Declaration for Public Assistance.

The intent of the PDA process is to depict the magnitude, impact, dollar damage, and the actions that are needed to deal with and recover from the event.

The PDA process is necessary to request federal assistance for the state and each affected county. If damage assessment information is not received when needed, we are unable to include a county’s information in the initial assessment of needs for public facilities.


Assessment of Damages

In order to determine the extent of an event, state agencies and county emergency management offices complete an initial assessment of the damages affected jurisdictions sustained in an impacted county. Each county emergency management office coordinates the data collection for all potential applicants within their county - their jurisdictions.


Who are the Applicants / Jurisdictions?

Applicants (jurisdictions) are defined as: state agencies, all local public agencies – counties, cities, towns, utilities (water, sewer, electrical) and other special-purpose districts to include school districts and fire districts, Indian tribes, and certain private non-profit organizations that provide essential governmental-type services.


How Does the Assessment Process Start?

Each local agency/jurisdiction completes the Preliminary Damage Assessment Estimates – Site/Category (PA-2) form for each category of work (type of damage) they incurred as a result of the disaster. The cost estimates from each category of work are included in the total cost estimates that are listed on the Preliminary Damage Assessment Summary (PA-1) form.  The forms are then forwarded to the County Emergency Management Office.

Please remember - the County is the coordination point for all local jurisdictions. The information the counties submit to EMD should include completed forms for each jurisdiction that sustained damages within their county.

Each impacted county emergency management office is responsible for notifying all jurisdictions in their county to complete a PDA. Counties are requested to complete a PDA of the county-owned damages sustained in their county and to coordinate the PDA data collection from all jurisdictions in their county. The PDAs submitted from all jurisdictions within the county are submitted to EMD, Public Assistance Program. The counties are not responsible for completing the forms for their jurisdictions.

We ask that each county emergency manager:

  1. Advise us of their primary point of contact. This is very important when we coordinate the follow-on joint PDA with FEMA.
  2. Notify us if their county did NOT experience extensive damages to public roads, sewers, water systems, schools, utility districts, etc., or
  3. Notify us if their county did sustain extensive damages by completing and submitting the PDA forms (PA-1 and PA-2) to EMD Public Assistance.

Each local jurisdiction and Indian Tribe is asked to forward the completed PDA forms to their county emergency management office for coordination and submission to the state.

The Counties need to send the forms to:
Email:  publicassist@emd.wa.gov, or
Fax:  (360) 570-6350


Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) Forms

To prepare the initial assessment, each public agency should complete a PA-2 worksheet for each category of damage incurred by the disaster and a PA-1 summary sheet.

The PDA forms are in one Excel workbook. You should save a copy of the workbood to your computer and then fill in the forms on this saved copy. The forms cannot be completed online. We also recommend that you keep a paper copy of the forms in case you do not have power or access to a computer when you need the forms.

The PDA Form includes:

  • Data Sheet. This is the 1st page in the Excel workbook. Completion of this page automatically fills the demographic information on each PA-1 and PA-2 form.
  • PA-1, Preliminary Damage Assessment Summary. This is required and provides the totals of each damage category and an overview of the event’s effects.
  • PA-2, Preliminary Damage Assessment Estimates - Site/Category. The PA-2 forms are required and should be completed before the PA-1 summary form. There is a PA-2 form for each Category of Work.
  • PA-3, PDA Totals – County’s Use. This is a project tracking tool for county emergency managers and is not a  required form.

The Instructions for the PDA forms are listed below. These are in a separate Word document.


Timeline

If it is determined that a formal Preliminary Damage Assessment will be pursued, federal/state PDA teams will arrive in each county. These teams will coordinate directly with the county's emergency management office. A representative knowledgeable about the damages should be available to help the teams verify the damages.

In general, the following timeline exists:

  • One week for each jurisdiction to complete their forms, submit to their county emergency manager, and
  • The county submits to EMD. State agencies submit directly to EMD.
  • One week for EMD to send out joint FEMA/State teams to verify all damage.
  • One week for EMD to collate all data, prepare request for disaster declaration, submit to the Governor for approval, and forward approved request package to FEMA.
  • Thirty days total to complete PDA and submit through Governor to FEMA.

 

Contact

For more information, please contact the Program Manager at (253) 512-7078.


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