when the county damages were viewed as a whole the dollar amount in damages did not meet the threshold for the state to proclaim a local emergency for public assistance. Department personnel well versed in road infrastructure reported that $2.4 million of the road damage was on federal-aid highways that could be eligible for the Federal Emergency Relief Program (Title 23, United States Code Section 125) administered through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The FHWA Emergency Relief Program is managed by the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and provides reimbursement when repair costs exceed $700,000. Personnel started researching what was needed to be able to submit a request for reimbursement under the FHWA Federal Emergency Relief Program. The first step is for the state to proclaim a state of emergency. Normally, Caltrans would request a state proclamation and the county would be covered under the proclamation. In that state proclamation, Caltrans would formally request immediate assistance through the FHWA Emergency Relief Program to obtain assistance for highway repairs or reconstruction to federal aid highways. In this incident, however, the road infrastructure damages were predominately federal aid highways maintained by the county. Through collaboration with the county’s Office of Emergency Management, the Board of Supervisors proclaimed a local emergency, but did not request CDAA in that proclamation. The need was for the state to proclaim a State of Emergency, since the $700,000 threshold identified in the FHWA Emergency Relief Program was met. If the state proclaimed, the request could be forwarded to FHWA. As with any proclamations, there are deadlines
that have to be followed to be eligible, so being mindful of the clock is important.
public works agencies knew exactly if they had “on-system” roadways in their cities and provided guidance to city management on the criteria and if there were eligible costs. The same happened for eligible costs for FMAG RFMAS. Keep in mind these are just a few examples of other avenues that the county has recently investigated and by no means is inclusive. Also, for both the examples listed, the recovery funding sought was only for specific areas and not recovery for eligible funds to the incident on a whole, which happens with presidentiallydeclared or gubernatorial-proclaimed disasters.
As another example, when a wildland fire has been federally declared for fire assistance, the Department can be eligible to receive cost recovery through the FMAG. The county’s Chief Executive Office would submit a Request for Fire Management Assistance Subgrant (RFMAS) for nonfire agencies for all actual eligible costs that include: overtime salaries and employee benefits; services and supplies; mileage; equipment and aircraft (if applicable). Under FMAG rules, essential assistance is an eligible cost. For public works, essential assistance includes traffic control, public information dissemination, and extraordinary Emergency Operations Center costs. Also, temporary repair of damages caused by eligible firefighting activities (with repair done within 30 days of incident period) is eligible. For example, if firefighting equipment caused damage to the roadways, guardrails or signage, the repairs are an eligible expense to be reimbursed. The FMAG does not pay for debris removal or damage to infrastructure caused from the fire, only damage caused from the firefighting activities.
As with any cost recovery, the most important thing is to have a defined recovery process to track and document everything from the beginning of an incident. This is especially important for large-scale events that could become presidentially-declared or gubernatorial-proclaimed disasters; however, by practicing this due diligence for responses to significant incidents those non-traditional avenues to find reimbursement could be eligible if an agency has tracked damages and costs. Loni Eazell is the Senior Disaster Services Analyst with Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. Loni has worked as an emergency manager for the Department for over 25 years. She has a degree from the University of Maryland, a graduate certificate in Emergency Management from Cal State Los Angeles and is Master in Exercise Preparedness (MEP). She can be reached at (626) 4587340 or leazell@dpw.lacounty.gov.
As stated earlier, presidentiallydeclared and gubernatorial-proclaimed disasters in California have not been approved as they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Agencies have begun to research other avenues to seek recovery to damage costs. Several years ago, an event that only received a local emergency proclamation at the Operational Area level, city officials started asking their public works agencies what was an “on-system” federal aid highway and did they have any of those in their jurisdiction. The www.apwa.net
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