FEMA Public Assistance

Disaster recovery

For cities, counties and water districts, Ithil keeps the FEMA Public Assistance record for each declared incident, from the first photograph of a damaged site to the summary records FEMA reviews.

Damage captured in the field, with or without signal

Crews record each damaged site on the Ithil mobile app with photographs, a GPS location and the damaged components, following the sections of FEMA's Damage Information form. Every entry is saved on the phone first and sent when the device reconnects, so a site walked in a dead zone after a storm is kept.

Each site becomes a damage assessment in the web app and carries its description of work into the Impact List, which exports under the labels of FEMA's form.

Damage Capture on a phone for disaster DR-9931-FL, listing three damaged sites, each with its Impact List entry complete — On the phone: the damaged sites recorded on one disaster, each showing whether its Impact List entry is complete.

A damaged site on a phone: County Road 12 causeway washout with its facility, facility type and GPS coordinates, and three damaged components with their materials — One damaged site on the phone, with its facility, facility type and GPS coordinates, and the damaged components recorded on it.

The Impact List for one incident: each damaged site with its facility type, location and GPS coordinates, status of work, approximate cost and anything still missing, with the workbook download.

A damaged site's photographs on its damage assessment. Each is recorded as evidence with a chain-of-custody hash, its GPS location and what it shows. The demo site's photographs are FEMA public-domain images from earlier storms.

The same photographs linked to the damaged component they show, numbered across the site as FEMA's Damage Information form asks.

The incident opens from the declaration

Ithil reads FEMA's disaster declarations from OpenFEMA every day for the organization's county. When a new declaration with Public Assistance covers it, Ithil proposes a recovery incident and an administrator confirms it. The declaration date then drives every deadline on the incident.

An incident opened from a FEMA declaration and confirmed: declaration number and date, Public Assistance declared, incident period, designated area and recovery scoping meeting, beside the organization's emergency period.

Force account labor and equipment, checked as entered

Labor and equipment are recorded by the day. Each labor line is sorted into eligible, ineligible or needs review under Chapter 6 of the Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide (PAPPG) Version 5.0, by category of work, pay type and budget status. Budgeted straight time on emergency protective measures, for example, is held out of the eligible total from the day it is entered.

Equipment is priced by cost code from FEMA's Schedule of Equipment Rates, with the 2025 schedule loaded as published. Ithil counts operating time, refuses hours beyond the usage log, and caps any one asset at 24 hours a day.

Labor lines sorted as they are entered. Budgeted straight time on emergency protective measures is marked ineligible, with the guide's wording shown beside it.

Equipment lines priced by FEMA cost code from the 2025 Schedule of Equipment Rates, with the hours logged, the hours claimed and the operator for each.

Materials, rentals and insurance in the same record

Materials are recorded as drawn from stock or purchased. Rented equipment carries its rental terms and the comparison with buying that PAPPG Chapter 6 asks for. Insurance policies list their covered locations, and actual or anticipated proceeds are deducted from each site and each project, with a flag on any proceeds not yet allocated.

FEMA's summary records, filled from the record

Sites and contracts are grouped into Public Assistance projects, each with its FEMA category of work. Ithil fills FEMA's summary records for each project: force account labor, force account equipment, materials, rented equipment and contract information. Each downloads as an Excel workbook or as an accessible PDF built to the PDF/UA standard, with a list of anything still missing.

The FEMA forms for one project: each summary record with its row count and blank fields, ready to download as XLSX or PDF.

A packet for every site

Each damaged site has a packet checked against the 17 items in Table 1 of DHS Office of Inspector General report OIG-26-25. Where Ithil already holds the evidence, the item fills itself. Otherwise it is satisfied by a linked document or by a written reason it does not apply, so a bare checkmark cannot be recorded.

Site packets for one incident: each site counted against the 17 rows of OIG-26-25 Table 1, with the items it still needs.

Deadlines and project size, computed and cited

Ithil derives the deadlines below from the dates on the incident. Each one is shown on screen with the section it comes from, and administrators are notified when one is due soon or overdue.

Request for Public Assistance: 30 days after the area is designated44 CFR 206.202(c); PAPPG v5.0, Chapter 3, III
Impact List: 60 days after the recovery scoping meeting44 CFR 206.202(d)(1)(ii); PAPPG v5.0, Chapter 5, I.A
Debris clearance and emergency work: 6 months from the declaration date44 CFR 206.204(c)(1); PAPPG v5.0, Chapter 11, II
Permanent work: 18 months from the declaration date44 CFR 206.204(c)(1); PAPPG v5.0, Chapter 11, II
First appeal: 60 days after the FEMA determination44 CFR 206.206(b)(1)(ii)(A)

The deadlines on an incident: each due date with its basis, the latest date with a recipient extension, and its status, beside the project thresholds for the fiscal year of the declaration.

Each project is classified as small or large against FEMA's project threshold for the federal fiscal year of the declaration, under 44 CFR 206.203(c). Ithil then shows which column of the PAPPG documentation tables applies to it.

Public Assistance projects for one incident, each with its category of work, estimate and small or large classification.

For the policy background, read our post on planning for disaster recovery with less federal help.