FEMA Public Assistance and Disaster Recovery Support

Challenge

FEMA Public Assistance is a grant program that supports disaster recovery for public infrastructure. From pre-declaration to close-out stages, this is often a multi-year process with hundreds of applicants and millions of dollars in public funding that must be tracked meticulously. When faced with multiple disasters, including the Covid-19 Pandemic, Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) needed additional experts to administer and manage grants for hundreds of applicants across nearly a dozen declared disasters in the state.

Solution

Since 2018, TRC has embedded our experts within MEMA to help their staff respond to an unprecedented number of disasters including the pandemic, floods, coastal storms and blizzards. From initial damage assessments to close-out documentation, we have been involved in every step of the Public Assistance process from preliminary damage assessments to recovery scoping meetings to close-out, helping MEMA secure over $300 million in federal funding for over 800 applicants statewide.

Results

TRC continues to function as an integral part of the MEMA team and has helped put Maine in a stronger position to address new disaster events and have a smoother and more efficient close-out process as they recover from events.