Category B: Emergency Protective Measures

The second Category of Work under Emergency Work is Category B: Emergency Protective Measures.

This subsection of Emergency Work discusses activities designated as emergency protective measures and eligibility requirements surrounding them.

For more information on the topic of emergency protective measures, please refer to the course: IS-1010: Emergency Protective Measures.

Category B: Eligibility Overview

Emergency Protective Measures conducted before, during, and after an incident are eligible if the measures:

• Eliminate or lessen immediate threats to lives, public health, or safety; OR
• Eliminate or lessen immediate threats of significant additional damage to improved public or private property in a cost-effective manner.

FEMA may require certification by Federal, State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government officials that a threat exists, including:

• Identification and evaluation of the threat
• Recommendations of the work necessary to cope with the threat

Grouping of Common Emergency Protective Measures

The groupings align with the eligibility measures previously discussed. Emergency Protective Measures must:

• Eliminate or lessen immediate threats to lives, public health, or safety; OR
• Eliminate or lessen immediate threats of significant additional damage to improved public or private property in a cost-effective manner.

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Category B: Grouping of Common Emergency Protective Measures

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The following emergency protective measures and costs are potentially eligible because the actions save lives or protect public health or safety. This list is not all-inclusive.

• Transporting and pre-positioning equipment and other resources for response
• Flood fighting
• Emergency Operation Center-related costs
• Emergency access
• Supplies and commodities
• Medical care and transport
• Evacuation and sheltering, including that provided by another State or Tribal government
• Child care
• Safety inspections
• Animal carcass removal
• Demolition of structures
• Search and rescue to locate survivors, household pets, and service animals requiring assistance
• Fire fighting
• Security, such as barricades, fencing, or law enforcement
• Use or lease of temporary generators for facilities that provide essential community services
• Dissemination of information to the public to provide warnings and guidance about health and safety hazards using various strategies, such as flyers, public service announcements, or newspaper campaigns
• Searching to locate and recover human remains
• Storage and interment of unidentified human remains
• Mass mortuary services

Category B: Grouping of Common Emergency Protective Measures

Protecting Improved Property

Emergency Protective Measures to protect improved property that are generally eligible include:

• Constructing emergency berms or temporary levees to provide protection from floodwaters or landslides
• Emergency repairs necessary to prevent further damage, such as covering a damaged roof to prevent infiltration of rainwater
• Buttressing, shoring, or bracing facilities to stabilize them or prevent collapse
• Temporary slope stabilization
• Mold remediation
• Removal and storage of contents from eligible facilities for the purpose of minimizing additional damage
• Extracting water and clearing mud, silt, or other accumulated debris from eligible facilities if the work is conducted expeditiously for the purpose of addressing an immediate threat (if the work is only necessary to restore the facility, it is Permanent Work, not Emergency Work)
• Taking actions to save the lives of animals that are eligible for replacement

Category B: Grouping of Common Emergency Protective Measures

Emergency Protective Measures on Private Property

The Applicant must include the following support documentation with the claim for the work to be eligible:

• A detailed explanation documenting the Applicant's legal authority and responsibility to enter private property
• The basis for the determination that a threat exists to the general public in that community
• Copies of the rights-of-entry and agreements to indemnify and hold harmless the Federal Government

If the above criteria are not met, the private property owner may be eligible for assistance under FEMA's Individual Assistance Programs. FEMA staff will coordinate to ensure the same work is not funded by both programs.

Considerations for Private Nonprofit Organizations

Private nonprofit organizations have specific and additional requirements they must meet in order to receive grant funding for emergency protective measures.

Category B: Considerations for Private Nonprofit Organizations

Emergency services are usually the responsibility of State, Local, Tribal, or Territorial governments. Therefore, private nonprofits are generally not legally responsible for emergency services and FEMA does not provide Public Assistance funding to private nonprofits for the costs associated with providing those services.

When a private nonprofit provides emergency services at the request of and is certified by the legally responsible government entity, FEMA provides Public Assistance funding through that government entity as the eligible Applicant. These services include:

• Fire and rescue activities
• Animal control
• Emergency ambulance service for evacuation
• 911 call services, if tracked and related to eligible work
• Other similarly urgent governmental services

Eligible Emergency Protective Measures for private nonprofits are generally limited to activities that prevent damage to an eligible facility and its contents.

Category B: Private Nonprofit Eligibility Exceptions

Medical or Custodial Care

Private nonprofits that own or operate a medical or custodial care facility are eligible for direct reimbursement of costs related to patient evacuation. In limited circumstances, FEMA may also reimburse a private nonprofit directly when essential components of a facility are urgently needed to save lives or protect health and safety, such as an emergency room of a private nonprofit hospital or a private nonprofit sewage or water treatment plant.

Volunteer Fire Departments

A State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government through an established agreement, may designate the private nonprofit volunteer fire department as an official recognized entity legally authorized to provide emergency services in specifically designated areas of coverage. FEMA may reimburse the volunteer fire department directly as an eligible Applicant.

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Common Emergency Protective Measure 1

Costs related to pre-positioning resources specifically for the declared incident are eligible if the resources are used in the performance of eligible Emergency Work.

Pre-positioning resources for the purpose of evacuating, or providing emergency medical care during the evacuation period (such as ambulances and busses), is eligible even if those resources are not ultimately used, provided the staging of those resources was necessary and prudent based on the data at the time of staging.

Category B: Operating a Facility

Common Emergency Protective Measure 2

The Applicant may incur additional costs related to operating a facility as a result of the incident because of an increased demand for the services the facility provides.

These additional costs are only eligible if:

• The services are specifically related to eligible emergency actions to save lives or protect public health and safety or improved property
• The costs are for a limited period of time based on the exigency of the circumstances
• The Applicant tracks and documents the additional costs

Potentially eligible increased operating costs include, but are not limited to, costs for:

• Generators at a hospital or police station
• Water testing and treatment supplies in the immediate aftermath of the incident to counter a specific threat
• Fuel for increased use of a pumping station
• Emergency Operations Center facility costs (e.g., utilities)

Ineligible operating costs include, but are not limited to:

• Patient care
• Administrative activities
• Provision of food
• Obtaining electrical power from an alternate source
• Obtaining water from an alternate source
• School make-up days, including contracted costs for bus service for make-up days
• Provision of fuel for school bus service

Category B: Emergency Public Transportation and Communication

Common Emergency Protective Measure 3

A State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government may provide emergency communication services and public transportation when existing systems are damaged to the extent vital functions of community life or incident response are disrupted.

• Generally these costs are not eligible for reimbursement since this is part of the normal operation of these departments
  
• However, FEMA may provide short-term Damage-Frequency Assessment for these services

Category B: Flood Fighting

Common Emergency Protective Measure 4

Flood fighting activities are eligible if necessary to reduce an immediate threat to life, public health and safety, or improved property.

• These activities are eligible even if they are associated with a facility that is eligible for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rehabilitation and Inspection Program, as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot reimburse Applicants for flood fighting
• These activities are not eligible if associated with flood control works under the specific authority of Natural Resources Conservation Service

Flood fighting activities may include, but are not limited to:

• Sandbagging
• Dewatering behind a levee by breaching or pumping
• Increasing the height of a levee

The repair of deliberate breaches made by the Applicant to accomplish dewatering is eligible as part of the Emergency Work project.

• Dewatering agricultural and natural areas behind levees and other water control structures is not eligible

Category B: Emergency Operations Centers

Common Emergency Protective Measure 5

The Applicant may use its Emergency Operations Center to direct and coordinate resources and response activities for a period of time. Response activities conducted at emergency operations centers are eligible provided they are associated with eligible work.

Costs associated with operating the executive Emergency Operations Center are also eligible, including, but not limited to:

• Increased utility costs
• Costs to lease a facility
• Supply costs
• Meal costs

Category B: Emergency Access

Common Emergency Protective Measure 6

If the extent of damage makes access routes to an essential community service or to a community with survivors inaccessible, work related to providing access may be eligible.

• Eligible work is limited to that necessary for the access to remain passable

Removal of debris from a privately-owned facility, including those within gated communities, is eligible only when all of the following conditions are met:

• There is no other access point
• Debris impedes emergency access
• The Applicant completes all legal processes and obtains rights-of-entry and agreements to indemnify and hold harmless the Federal Government
• Work is performed by an eligible Applicant with legal authority to perform the work

Emergency repairs to a privately-owned facility are eligible only when all of the following conditions are met:

• There is no other access point
• Repair of the damage economically eliminates the need for temporary housing
• The Applicant completes all legal processes and obtains rights-of-entry and agreements to indemnify and hold harmless the Federal Government
• Work is performed by an eligible Applicant with legal authority to perform the work

Category B: Supplies and Commodities

Common Emergency Protective Measure 7

The purchase of supplies and commodities required for emergency protective measures is eligible.

• Costs related to the Applicant purchasing supplies or using their own stock to perform Emergency Work for their own facility are eligible.

• E.g., safety equipment, personal protective equipment, radios

• Purchasing and packaging life-saving and life-sustaining commodities and providing them to the impacted community are eligible.

• E.g., food, water, ice, personal hygiene items

• The cost of delivering the life-saving and life-sustaining commodities to unsheltered residents where these commodities aren't easily accessible to purchase is eligible
• The cost of leasing distribution and storage space for the commodities is eligible

Category B: Meals

Common Emergency Protective Measure 8

Applicants often provide meals for emergency workers. Provision of meals, including beverages and meal supplies, for employees and volunteers engaged in eligible Emergency Work, including those at emergency operations centers, is eligible provided the individuals are not receiving per diem and one of the following circumstances apply:

• Meals are required based on a labor policy or written agreement
  
• Conditions constitute a level of severity that requires employees to work abnormal, extended work hours without a reasonable amount of time to provide for their own meals; or
  
• Food or water is not reasonably available for employees to purchase

FEMA only reimburses the cost of meals that are brought to the work location and purchased in a cost-effective and reasonable manner, such as bulk meals. FEMA does not reimburse costs related to group outings at restaurants or individual meals.

Category B: Medical Care

Common Emergency Protective Measure 9

When the emergency medical delivery system within a declared area is destroyed, severely compromised, or overwhelmed, FEMA may fund extraordinary costs associated with operating emergency rooms and with providing temporary facilities for emergency medical care of survivors.

• Costs are eligible for up to 30 days from the declaration date unless extended by FEMA

Eligible medical care may include, but is not limited to:

• Triage and medically necessary tests and diagnosis
• Treatment, stabilization, and monitoring
• First-aid assessment and provision of first aid
• A one-time 30-day supply of prescriptions for acute conditions or to replace maintenance prescriptions
• Durable medical equipment
• Leased or purchased equipment for use in temporary medical care facilities
• Facilities

Ineligible medical costs include:

• Long-term medical treatment
• Medical care costs incurred once a survivor is admitted to a medical facility on an inpatient basis
• Administrative costs associated with the treatment of survivors

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Common Emergency Protective Measure 10

Evacuation and sheltering of survivors are eligible activities. This includes household pets and service and assistance animals, but not exhibition or livestock animals. The sheltering activity must have legal responsibility and being funded through the governmental entity.

Eligible evacuation and sheltering activities include:

• Evacuation including accessible transportation and emergency medical transportation
• Child care services
• Costs related to emergency sheltering for survivors:

• Shelter facility costs
• Shelter staff costs
• Shelter supplies and commodities
• Shelter services

Category B: Infectious Disease Event

Common Emergency Protective Measure 11

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has primary authority to enable support and assistance to States, Territorial, or Tribal Governments in response to an infectious disease event.

FEMA may provide assistance for the rescue, evacuation, and movement of persons; movement of supplies; and care, shelter, and other essential needs of affected human populations. Any assistance provided by FEMA in response to an infectious disease event is done in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Category B: Mosquito Abatement

Common Emergency Protective Measure 12

Mosquito abatement measures may be eligible when a State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government public health official validates in writing that a mosquito population poses a specific health threat.

FEMA consults with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine the eligibility of mosquito abatement activities. FEMA only provides Public Assistance funding for the increased cost of mosquito abatement. This is the amount that exceeds the average amount based on the last 3 years of expenses for the same period.

Category B: Residential Electrical Meters

Common Emergency Protective Measure 13

To reduce the number of survivors needing shelter, FEMA may provide limited Public Assistance funding to a State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government to repair residential electrical meters. To receive Public Assistance funding, the State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government must:

• Issue a finding of an immediate threat to safety due to loss of power caused by damaged meters or weather heads
• Request participation in this program
• Receive FEMA approval for each identified property

Only residential properties are eligible for this program. Commercial properties, including apartment complexes are not eligible.

Category B: Safety Inspections

Common Emergency Protective Measure 14

Post-incident safety inspections for public and private facilities are eligible, as well as posting appropriate placards (e.g., "red-tagging" a building that is unsafe).

The specific purpose of the inspection must be to determine whether the facility is safe for entry, occupancy, and lawful use.

The Applicant must clearly substantiate that the purpose of the inspection was for safety and not to assess damage. Building inspections are not eligible if the purpose of the inspection is to:

• Determine whether the building is Substantially Damaged for the purpose of compliance with the community's floodplain management ordinance
• Determine whether the building needs to be elevated or relocated, in accordance with the community's floodplain management ordinance
• Ensure that repairs are completed in accordance with the community's building code or standard

Category A: Animal Carcasses (1 of 2)

Removal and disposal of animal carcasses, including interim processing, is eligible. If the removal and disposal is conducted as part of the overall debris removal operations, the work may be funded as Category A.

FEMA may require certification from the State, Local, Tribal, or Territorial government health department, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture that a threat to public health and safety exists.

• When few in number, smaller animal carcasses (e.g., rodents, skunks, or possums) do not usually pose an immediate threat to public health or safety. Removal and disposal of these carcasses is not eligible.

Category A: Animal Carcasses (2 of 2)

FEMA does not provide Public Assistance funding when another Federal agency has authority to provide assistance for carcass removal and disposal.

• Natural Resources Conservation Service has authority to remove animal carcasses and to provide technical assistance to the Applicant under its Emergency Watershed Protection Program.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency may provide assistance for farmland debris cleanup.
• The Public Assistance and U.S. Coast Guard have authority to provide technical assistance and to remove animal carcasses contaminated with oil, hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants.

Category B: Demolition of Private Structures

Common Emergency Protective Measure 15

Emergency demolition of structures located on private property may be eligible when partial or complete collapse is imminent and that collapse poses an immediate threat to the general public.

Demolition of structures owned by commercial enterprises, including businesses, apartments, and condominiums, are generally ineligible.

In some instances, restricting public access to an unsafe structure and the surrounding area, such as securing the area with a fence, is sufficient to alleviate the immediate threat and is more cost-effective than demolition. In these cases, demolition is not eligible.

If a structure is condemned prior to the incident, emergency protective measures related to that structure are not eligible.

FEMA must review the Applicant's demolition process for compliance with all applicable environmental and historic preservation laws, regulations, and executive orders.

Category B: Temporary Relocation

Common Emergency Protective Measure 16

If the applicant provides essential community services at a facility that is unsafe, inaccessible, or destroyed as a result of the incident, temporary relocation of these service to another facility is eligible.

• Essential community services are those services of a governmental nature that are necessary to save lives, protect property and the public, and preserve the proper function and health of the community at large.
• The regulatory time limitation for temporary facilities is six months from the declaration date

Eligible temporary relocation of essential services includes, but are not limited to:

• Essential community services provided by a State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government Applicant are eligible

• E.g., Police, Fire protection, Emergency services, Medical care

• Essential community services provided by private nonprofit Applicant are eligible (provided they own and operate the facility)

• E.g., Alcohol and drug rehabilitation, child care, fire protection and emergency services

Eligible work associated with the temporary relocation of essential services includes but is not limited to:

• Lease, purchase, or construction of a temporary space
• Construction of safe room for temporary school facilities

• This is only eligible if the permanent facility had one as well

• Relocation work and costs

Category B: Emergency Berms on Beaches

Common Emergency Protective Measure 17

If a natural or engineered beach has eroded to a point where a 5-year flood could damage improved property, cost-effective emergency protective measures on the beach that protect against damage from that flood are eligible.

Eligible measures typically include the construction of emergency sand berms to protect against additional damage from a 5-year flood. The Applicant may construct emergency berms with sand recovered from the beach or with imported sand. If the Applicant constructs the berm with imported sand, FEMA will only provide Public Assistance funding if the sand is from a source that meets applicable environmental regulations and one of the following circumstances exists:

• Recoverable quantities are insufficient
• State, Territorial, Tribal, or Local government regulations prohibit placement of the recovered sand

Based on the average expected erosion for a 5-year flood, FEMA only provides Public Assistance funding for emergency berms constructed with up to 6 cubic yards per linear foot of sand above the 5-year stillwater elevation or the berm's pre-storm profile, whichever is less. In some cases, placing sand below the 5-year stillwater elevation may be necessary to provide a base for the berm. The placement of that sand is eligible as part of the emergency protective measure.

Category B: Temporary Emergency Repair or Stabilization

Common Emergency Protective Measure 18

Temporary emergency repair or stabilization of an eligible facility is eligible as Emergency Work if it eliminates or lessens an immediate threat.

• Work performed under an exigent circumstance that restores the pre-disaster design and function of the facility in accordance with codes and standards is Permanent Work, not Emergency Work

Temporary emergency repair of a facility is not eligible if another Federal agency has the specific authority to provide assistance for the facility, such as for:

• Federal-Aid highways - Federal Highway Administration
• Flood control works - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Natural Resources Conservation Service

For Tribal Governments specifically, although the Bureau of Indian Affairs or Federal Highway Administration may have authority to provide temporary emergency repair of Tribal roads, such roads may be eligible for Public Assistance funding, provided the Tribal Government does not receive funding from Bureau of Indian Affairs or Federal Highway Administration for the work.

Category B: Temporary Slope Stabilization

Common Emergency Protective Measure 19

If a landslide or other slope instability is triggered by the incident and poses an immediate threat to life, public health and safety, or improved public or private property, emergency protective measures to stabilize the slope may be eligible.

• FEMA only provides Public Assistance funding for the least costly option necessary to alleviate the threat.
• FEMA limits eligible stabilization measures to the area of the immediate threat, not the entire slope

Eligible emergency protective measures include, but are not limited to:

• Temporary drainage measures
• Temporary ground protection to better stabilize the mass (rip rap, sheeting)
• Partial excavation at the head of a sliding mass to reduce its driving force
• Backfilling or buttressing at the toe of a sliding mass using measures such as gabions, rock toes, cribwalls, binwalls, and soldier pile walls
• Installation of barriers to redirect debris flow

Category B: Mold Remediation

Common Emergency Protective Measure 20

The incident may cause facilities to be inundated or exposed to wet and humid weather conditions for extended periods of time. These conditions may cause growth and spreading of mold in structures and on contents, causing threats to public health and increasing the repair cost.

The following remediation activities may be eligible as emergency protective measures:

• Wet vacuuming, damp wiping, or vacuuming with High-Efficiency Particulate Air equipment of the interior space
• Removal of contaminated gypsum board, plaster (or similar wall finishes), carpet or floor finishes, and ceilings or permanent light fixtures
• Cleaning of contaminated heating and ventilation (including ductwork), plumbing, and air conditioning systems or other mechanical equipment

For mold remediation to be eligible, mold must not be a result of poor facility maintenance or failure to take protective measures to prevent the spread of mold in a reasonable time after the incident.

Category B: Snow-Related Activities

Common Emergency Protective Measure 21

FEMA provides limited Public Assistance funding for snow-related activities when the President declares an incident as a snowstorm or specifically authorizes snow assistance in a declaration for a severe winter storm.

Snow-related activities are only eligible emergency protective measures when a winter storm event results in record or near-record snowfall. Snow assistance is authorized by county based on the finding that the county received record or near-record snowfall or meets the contiguous county criteria.

Snow-related activities that may be eligible include:

• Limited-time activities (for limited time as discussed above):

• Snow removal
• Snow dumps
• De-icing
• Salting
• Sanding of roads and other eligible facilities

• Other emergency protective measures (not restricted to the limited time), including but not limited to, search and rescue and sheltering

Category B: Snow-Related Activities

Limited Time Period for Work

Snow-related activities are eligible for a continuous 48-hour period to address the most critical emergency needs. Each Applicant designates the beginning of its 48-hour period. However, a State agency that conducts snow-related activities in multiple locations throughout a State, such as a Department of Transportation, may use different 48-hour periods for different locations.

Once FEMA approves a project for the Applicant's designated 48-hour period, the Applicant cannot change its selected period.

If the Applicant awards a contract for periods greater than the 48-hour period, Public Assistance funding is limited to the costs incurred during the 48-hour period.

The FEMA Assistant Administrator of the Recovery Directorate may extend the eligible period by 24 hours in counties, parishes, or Tribal Government areas where the snowfall exceeds the historical record snowfall by at least 50 percent.

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