DATE: September 19, 2023
TO: Local Emergency Management Directors
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
FROM: Dawn Brantley, Director
SUBJECT: September 11-13, 2023 Severe Storms and Flooding
Initial Damage Assessments for Public Assistance
Last week’s severe thunderstorms caused significant impacts throughout Massachusetts, including flash flooding, inundation, erosion, and infrastructure damage. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is initiating the Initial Damage Assessment (IDA) process to determine whether the Commonwealth and its communities may be eligible to receive federal disaster assistance under a Presidential Disaster declaration for the September 11-13, 2023 severe storms and flooding.
The IDA process is intended to capture damage cost estimates that provide a high-level view of costs to the Commonwealth and all affected communities and state agencies. The MEMA IDA form can help to compile your storm-related costs. Depending on the results of the IDA, formal joint FEMA-State Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs) may be conducted.
At this time, MEMA is requesting that local emergency management directors take the lead for your community in gathering the required IDA information, completing the attached IDA form, and submitting one completed IDA form reflecting all storm-related costs for the community to MEMA.
Please complete and submit the form no later than close of business on Monday, September 25, 2023. If your community had no damages or costs to report, please indicate this on the IDA form and submit as well.
For Public Assistance (PA), please provide damage costs estimates related to all categories of work. Only include work that was performed on public property and public rights-of-ways. Please document any and all local mutual aid resources deployed to your community (not state resources). To assist with cost estimating on use of equipment, please use the latest FEMA Schedule of Equipment Rates.
Damages related to private homes and businesses will be captured using a separate survey.
If you have any questions, please contact MEMA’s Disaster Recovery Unit at disaster.recovery@mass.gov or call any of our program coordinators.
Keith Parent, 508-820-2003, keith.parent@mass.gov
Max Hughes, 508-820-2055, max.hughes@mass.gov
Lorraine Eddy, 508-361-4901, Lorraine.eddy@mass.gov
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