Tips from FEMA

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2024). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/, DOI: 10.25921/stkw-7w73

credit: Climate Central

 7 Things to Know About Applying for Disaster Assistance

Hurricanes Helene and Milton uprooted lives across multiple states. If you were affected, you may be left feeling overwhelmed and wondering what steps to take next. As you begin to clear debris and work to save damaged family treasures, one important step you can take is to apply for disaster assistance. 
Click here for more information.

Download today on iOS or Android. 

Learn more on the FEMA App webpage.

===================================================================

STAY INFORMED

Know what disasters and hazards could affect your area, how to get emergency alerts, and where you would go if you and your family need to evacuate.  Make sure your family has a plan and practices it often. Click here to learn more.

Download the FEMA App to get preparedness strategies, real-time weather and emergency alerts.

🔶🔶The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works to reduce harm and protect lives by helping communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies.  Floods, big or small, can be devastating. Click here to learn what you can do to stay safe and protect your health from the dangers of flooding. 

🔶🔶 There is a Disaster Center Pennsylvania Page on the FEMA website.  On it you will find Federal Disaster Links, State Disaster Links, Disaster Center Links, Weather Updates, and much more.

🔶🔶 On December 11, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and FEMA signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for Latino communities across the U.S. This partnership addresses the disproportionate impacts of natural disasters on Latinos, often worsened by climate change, and ensures equitable access to critical Latino communities face heightened disaster risks due to economic inequities, language barriers, and residence in areas prone to hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires. Industries with high Latino representation, such as agriculture and construction, are also heavily disrupted by disasters. The increasing frequency and severity of these events due to climate change magnify these vulnerabilities.  Learn more.

🔶🔶 Our partners at Medicare remind us that it is a good idea to be prepared in case a natural disaster strikes.  Learn More about how to get the care you need if an emergency is declared.

🔶🔶FEMA has produced Updates to FEMA Programs for People with Disabilities.  Learn more. You can also learn more about FEMA’s programs with the disability community at Home Repairs and Improvements for Survivors with Disabilities: FEMA Quick Reference Guide.

🔶🔶 Click here for the latest map of the FEMA Regions, annotated with the names of the FEMA Voluntary Organization Liaisons in each region.

🔶🔶 For the latest FEMA VAL updates and VAC Snapshot Reports (distributed every Friday) go to VOISE Dashboard.  Go to the FEMA VAL Donations Unit Dashboard for donation offers and needs. You can sign up for FEMA reminders and operational updates by sending an email to FEMA-VAL@fema.dhs.gov.

🔶🔶FEMA has revised its National Disaster Recovery Framework. The revised framework includes feedback and recommendations from the public submitted earlier this year.  Key revisions focus on clarifying roles and responsibilities, detailing the federal recovery support function structure and its role in supporting local recovery goals, enhancing collaboration across the whole community and providing practical resources to assist in recovery planning efforts.  The framework explains the federal government’s roles and responsibilities for organizing and deploying disaster recovery assistance. It also enhances effective collaboration among federal, state, local, Tribal Nations and territorial agencies while informing nongovernmental partners.  For more information, visit National Disaster Recovery Framework | FEMA.gov. 

🔶🔶Learn how you can better prepare yourself and your community through articles, Data Digests, and other news curated by FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD).

🔶🔶 A new online educational game designed to teach high school students about decision making during disasters is now available!  Disaster Mind challenges and encourages participants to make critical decisions in the face of three simulated disaster scenarios: a flood, a wildfire and a blizzard.  Complicating their quest, a mysterious guide creates challenges for the participants during game play.  See also the  supporting educational materials.

🔶🔶 FEMA Releases Prepare with Pedro Storybooks

🔶🔶 FEMA produces hazard information sheets, which are short, two-page summaries of research-based guidance and advice for actions you should take to prepare for, protect against and recover from specific disasters or hazards.  As hurricane season approaches, take time to understand and prepare for how a hurricane could affect you by downloading FEMA’s Hurricane Hazard Information Sheet. Because hurricanes and other weather related events can result in power outages, you should also prepare yourself and your family for the loss of power by downloading FEMA’s Power Outage Hazard Information Sheet.

🔶🔶 Need to contact a government agency?  The A-Z list provides the contact information for federal agencies, departments, and offices in one convenient location so you can quickly find:

  • Websites
  • Emails
  • Phone numbers
  • Mailing addresses

Find Contact Information for Federal Agencies

🔶🔶 FEMA and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers (RCI) have created the Disaster Preparedness Guide for Caregivers to help them navigate unique challenges that may arise during disasters. While caregiving can be overwhelming at times, taking three essential steps—assessing needs, engaging a support network, and creating a plan—can help caregivers feel more prepared and in control when disaster strikes.  The Disaster Preparedness Guide for Caregivers includes tailored information and resources for three main caregiver audiences: those who can involve their care recipient in their planning, those who can engage a support network to aid planning, and solo caregivers. It provides key considerations caregivers can use to identify their care recipient’s needs and how they may change during a disaster.

🔶🔶 The Association of State Floodplain Managers’ flood mitigation resource library continues to work to bring flood mitigation to the masses with the addition of 22 things property owners can do to reduce flood risk, just in time for many state severe weather awareness campaigns. The new strategies range from relatively simple projects, like landscaping and plumbing improvements, to more complex engineering options, such as constructing an earthen levee or installing underground water tanks.  As you work with home and business owners looking to make informed decisions around the action they can take this year to lower their risk of flooding, let them know about the Reduce Flood Risk website. Developed by ASFPM with financial support from FEMA, this interactive website demystifies flood mitigation and empowers people to protect themselves and their assets.  To learn more follow this link.

🔶🔶 News about the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

  1.  NFIP Will Soon Have an Option for Monthly Payments.  FEMA is in the process of allowing NFIP policyholders to choose monthly installments for their annual flood insurance premiums. See this FAQ page for more information. Please note:  This option is not yet available but will be launching soon!
  2. New Tool: NFIP Online Quoting Tool.  FEMA has released an online quoting tool where property owners can create a flood insurance quote based on a home’s address and characteristics. This tool can help homeowners communicate with their insurance agents to ensure the best coverage. Check out the tool here. 

🔶🔶 John A. Miller, FEMA Region 2 Mitigation Liaison, has written an article, “Worried About Extreme Weather? – You Are Not Alone”.  He writes, “According to a recently released survey by LendingTree of nearly 2,000 consumers, about half are fearful of climate change-related hazards effects on their homes, with severe storms making up a quarter of the hazards of worry. Worry is not only based in personal safety and physical impacts. A quarter of respondents were concerned about reduced property value in the next ten years, while seven in ten think the increasing risk will make insurance more expensive (20% say they have already experienced in increase), with more than a third worried they will be dropped by their home insurer.”  READ FULL ARTICLE

🔶🔶 FEMA and the National Endowment of the Arts proudly announces the release of the Fact Sheet on Art and Culture: Helping People Before, During, and After Disasters.  This fact sheet adds to ongoing conversations about how individual artists and the art community at-large can lend their vision and skills to build communities more resilient to disasters which we covered on FEMA and NEA’s Webinar on Disaster Resources for Artists and Art and Cultural Institutions (youtube.com) Feel free to also check out Inspiration Book: Arts and Experiential Learning (fema.gov) and Guide to Expanding Mitigation: Making the Connection with Arts and Culture (fema.gov).

🔶🔶The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR) is a free, national online source for sophisticated climate data down to the neighborhood level.  ClimRR provides easy access to climate data to integrate future conditions into Hazard Mitigation Plans, land use plans, infrastructure design, and FEMA’s Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT).  ClimRR data is available for changing hazards: extreme temperatures (hot and cold), cooling and heating degree days, heat index, wind, fire weather index, precipitation/no precipitation under two carbon emission scenarios. The updated portal lets users visualize and analyze future climate hazards combined with local demographic and infrastructure data. Enhanced features include:

  • New Consolidated Local Reports Assessing Future Climate Hazards and Community Impacts
  • New Maps, Charts & Visualizations
  • Improved Educational Features to Interpret Climate Hazard Data Points 

Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters

Billion Dollar Disaster map

The U.S. has sustained 360 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including CPI adjustment to 2023). The total cost of these 360 events exceeds $2.570 trillion.

Read Full Article

====================================================================

SHIELDS READY CAMPAIGN

CISA’s Shields Ready campaign is about making resilience during incidents a reality by taking action before incidents occur. As a companion to CISA’s Shields Up initiative, Shields Ready drives action at the intersection of critical infrastructure resilience and national preparedness. By taking steps in advance of an incident, organizations, individuals, and communities are better positioned to quickly adjust their posture for heightened risk conditions, in turn helping to prevent incidents, to reduce impact, and get things back to normal—or better—as quickly as possible. Being part of the resilience journey makes for more resilient people, organizations, and communities.

=======================================================================================

Stay Connected with FEMA Disaster Operations

Click here for current FEMA disaster information.

Has Your FEMA Claim Been Denied

Learn more about FEMA Individual Assistance.

Doing Business with FEMA | FEMA.gov – 

Learn about the four-step process your organization can follow to do business with FEMA, in accordance with the Robert T. Stafford Act.

SBA Office of Disaster Assistance

The Office of Disaster Assistance’s mission is to provide low-interest disaster loans to businesses of all sizes, private non-profit organizations, homeowners, and renters to repair or replace real estate, personal property, machinery & equipment, inventory and business assets that have been damaged or destroyed in a declared disaster.

Resources from the U.S. Small Business Administration:
    Disaster Assistance Loans For Businesses and Non-Profit Organizations
    Disaster Assistance Loans for Homeowners and Renters
    What Houses of Worship Need to Know About the FEMA Disaster Aid Process

Various Tips and Tools from FEMA

++    Tools to Recover | FEMA.gov – FEMA has collected frequently used tools and information to help you communicate and get started with the recovery process.

++ Flood Safety Tool Kit – Flooding is the most common and costly disaster in the United States and can happen anywhere it rains. At any given time, floodwaters can cause millions of dollars in damage. This toolkit offers important information to prepare you for floods, prevent injury, loss of property, and even loss of life.

++    Frequently Asked Questions About Disasters – Get answers to frequently asked questions about emergency shelters, disaster assistance, flood insurance and more.

++    Disaster Multimedia Toolkit | FEMA.gov – The resources on this page are ideal for external partners and media looking for disaster recovery content to share on social media during and after a disaster, including: social graphics, flyers and announcer scripts, accessible videos and animations in multiple languages.

++    Disaster Text Messaging Resource Kit – Communication can be limited following a disaster. This resource kit offers text messaging information you can share with survivors when only text messaging is available in a service area.

++   FEMA in Your Language | FEMA.gov – Disaster survivors can find translated information about disaster assistance programs, emergency preparedness, response and recovery activities, and flood insurance. The information comes in various formats and is available for sharing and downloading. Additional resources will be added periodically, so please visit often.

++    Save Your Family Treasures | FEMA.gov – FEMA and the Smithsonian Institution co-sponsor the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, a partnership of more than 60 national service organizations and federal agencies created to protect cultural heritage from the damaging effects of natural disasters and other emergencies.

++    CDC colleagues have great safety material in multiple languages: Health and Safety Concerns for All Disasters|Natural Disasters and Severe Weather (cdc.gov)

FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program:

How to Start Filing Your Claim   

How to File a Flood Insurance Claim English | Spanish 
Starting Your Recovery: FEMA’s Flood Insurance Claims Process English | Spanish 
Wind vs. Water Damage English | Spanish

Below are resources available for your use. All resources may be shared with or distributed to other partners in insurance, public safety, emergency management, media and elsewhere.

Quick Resources

Read More

To help people better understand the National Flood Insurance Program’s new methodology, FEMA published two videos in a series explaining rating variables and how they affect premiums. The first of these new videos, Risk Rating 2.0: Equity in Action: Rating Variables (Part 2) complements Risk Rating 2.0: Equity in Action: Rating Variables (Part 1). The new video describes how a structure’s location and the way it is built impact a policyholder’s premium. It also explains why certain building decisions can affect the final rate determination. The other new video details the nuances of building and content coverage.

Whether you’re a renter or a property owner, take a moment to consider adding flood insurance to your financial safety net. Bottom line: basic home and renters policies don’t cover flood repairs, but you can fill that protection gap. Not sure if you have flood risk? Take this quiz.

Home insurance prices are at an all-time high in many parts of the US today, but protecting your assets is still so important. If you’re not in a high flood risk area, adding that protection won’t be a budget buster. If you have an NFIP policy but are considering dropping it, make an informed decision before you do. The fact is – all states have some flood risk.

Flood insurance details:

  • You can add flood coverage through a private flood insurer or the National Flood Insurance Program.
  • There will be a waiting period from the date you buy it to the date it kicks in. (30 days for an NFIP policy).
  • Flood insurance can be very affordable, depending on your location.
  • Use this link to learn about your area’s flood risk, contact an insurance agent or call the NFIP at 877-336-2627.
  • If you have a mortgage and your home is in a Special Hazard Flood Zone, your lender will require flood insurance.
  • An NFIP policy provides $250,000 max to repair flood damage to your home.
  • An NFIP policy provides $100,000 max for belongings but not automatically. You have to ask for and pay for this additional coverage.
  • An NFIP policy will NOT cover temporary rent if your home is uninhabitable after a flood. Most private flood policies cover that expense.

Contact your insurance agent or company and ask:

  • How much will it cost to insure my home and belongings for flood damage?
  • Can you help me compare the cost, coverages, and options in an NFIP versus adding coverage to my existing policy through a “flood endorsement” or private flood insurer?
  • Would a flood rider or endorsement give me more than $250,000 in coverage? Will it cover temporary rent?

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) has announced that Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys, as Chair of the Flood Insurance Premium Assistance Task Force (the Task Force), is seeking public input on the accessibility and affordability of flood insurance throughout the Commonwealth. The comment period will close on February 5, 2024.  The Task Force will review and analyze existing statutes, procedures, practices, processes, and rules relating to the administration of flood insurance in Pennsylvania, and recommend potential programs that provide premium discounts, programs that incentivize local governments to support flood mitigation efforts, and how to increase the number of people who purchase flood insurance through the national flood insurance program or the private flood insurance marketplace. It was established by Act 22 of 2023.  Public comment on flood insurance may be emailed to ra-in-policyoffice@pa.gov, or comments may be mailed to PID’s Director of Policy and Planning, Office of the Insurance Commissioner, 1326 Strawberry Square, Harrisburg, PA 17120. Comments are requested by February 5.

Pennsylvanians impacted by flooding should visit PID’s website for resources that can help guide property owners through filing insurance claims, and tips to avoid repair scams. More information on the NFIP and private flood insurance is available on the Insurance Department’s one-stop Flood Insurance page, and more information on guidance following a severe weather event can be found on the Disaster Recovery resource page.

Consumers with questions or wishing to file a complaint can contact PID’s Consumer Services Bureau by visiting its webpage, or by calling 1-877-881-6388.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

FEMA has collected frequently used tools and information to help you communicate and get started with the recovery process. Go to https://www.fema.gov/disaster/recover.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Short Videos:

Key Infographics:

————————————————————————————————————————————-

About Us
How To Help
Donate