Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
122 lines (100 loc) · 13.1 KB

README.md

File metadata and controls

122 lines (100 loc) · 13.1 KB
Raw

FEMA Disaster Declarations and Public Assistance Data Analysis

Author: Mark Bauer

Table of Contents

Note: This analysis uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Read more about OpenFEMA's Terms and Conditions.

year-incident

map

map-normalized

Table xx. Top 20 Public Assistance Grants by Highest Total Obligated Amount (Millions)

rank disasterNumber state year incidentType totalObligatedM
1 4339 Puerto Rico 2017 Hurricane 34219
2 4480 New York 2020 Biological 15622
3 4340 Virgin Islands 2017 Hurricane 15613
4 4485 Texas 2020 Biological 14931
5 4085 New York 2012 Hurricane 14735
6 1603 Louisiana 2005 Hurricane 13666
7 4482 California 2020 Biological 11859
8 1391 New York 2001 Fire 4733
9 4486 Florida 2020 Biological 3705
10 1604 Mississippi 2005 Hurricane 3219
11 4488 New Jersey 2020 Biological 3065
12 4496 Massachusetts 2020 Biological 3001
13 4332 Texas 2017 Hurricane 2926
14 4559 Louisiana 2020 Hurricane 2878
15 4611 Louisiana 2021 Hurricane 2709
16 4481 Washington 2020 Biological 2576
17 4484 Louisiana 2020 Biological 2497
18 4337 Florida 2017 Hurricane 2464
19 4673 Florida 2022 Hurricane 2372
20 4086 New Jersey 2012 Hurricane 2243

Table xx. Public Assistance Grants by Highest Total Obligated Amount per Incident Type (Millions)

incidentType disasterNumber state year totalObligatedM
Biological 4480 New York 2020 15622
Chemical 3366 West Virginia 2014 1.64
Coastal Storm 1379 Texas 2001 433.65
Dam/Levee Break 1529 California 2004 21.03
Drought 3276 Federated States of Micronesia 2007 0.08
Earthquake 4473 Puerto Rico 2020 948.42
Fire 1391 New York 2001 4732.56
Flood 4308 California 2017 820.38
Freezing 1468 Maine 2003 1.74
Hurricane 4339 Puerto Rico 2017 34219
Mud/Landslide 4635 Washington 2022 33.18
National Special Security Event 3553 District Of Columbia 2021 6.22
Other 4338 Georgia 2017 116.01
Severe Ice Storm 1818 Kentucky 2009 255.21
Severe Storm 1763 Iowa 2008 1155.49
Severe Storm(s) 4420 Nebraska 2019 508.17
Snow 4368 New Jersey 2018 30.2
Snowstorm 4261 Maryland 2016 69.27
Terrorist 3362 Massachusetts 2013 6.2
Tornado 4630 Kentucky 2021 152
Toxic Substances 3603 Virgin Islands 2023 1.46
Tropical Storm 4567 New York 2020 780.37
Tsunami 1968 California 2011 37.7
Typhoon 4404 Northern Mariana Islands 2018 281.94
Volcanic Eruption 4201 Hawaii 2014 11.13
Volcano 4366 Hawaii 2018 124.89
Wildfire 4407 California 2018 1306.46
Winter Storm 4644 Virginia 2022 111.85

incident-state

1. Introduction

The Public Assistance (PA) Program is FEMA's largest grant program, designed to provide funds that help communities respond to and recover from major declared disasters and emergencies. This analysis stems from my interest in examining FEMA's Public Assistance funding across various disaster incident types, including floods, wildfires, and earthquakes. In this analysis, I focus on exploring spending patterns by incident type, highlighting that hurricanes represent the most costly disasters. It is also worth noting that a significant portion of funding has been allocated for COVID-19-related expenditures through the PA Program. You can easily search for any incident with FEMA's Disaster and Other Declarations Search Tool.

To learn more about the formal disaster declaration process, disaster types, how FEMA gets involved, and other resources, visit FEMA's Disaster Information webpage.

I would also like to commend OpenFEMA and its team for creating such a comprehensive data repository. OpenFEMA offers a diverse array of datasets related to Disaster Assistance (both Public and Individual), the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and Hazard Mitigation. It has become one of my favorite open data platforms, featuring data formats like Parquet, a web-based data dictionary, and row-based Last Refreshed and Hash columns. I am excited for what the future holds for OpenFEMA.

Note: This analysis presents all financial figures in nominal dollars. No adjustments for inflation have been made, meaning that the values reflect the actual dollar amounts at the time of measurement. Additionally, the date and time of data access can be found in each notebook.

This analysis uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

2. Notebooks

  • FEMA's Disaster Declarations: This notebook provides a comprehensive analysis of disaster declarations from FEMA, featuring tables and charts that highlight key insights since 1953.
  • FEMA's Public Assistance Program: Explore detailed insights into the Public Assistance Program through this notebook, which includes tables and charts representing funded projects, referred to as project worksheets (PWs).
  • Figures: This notebook is dedicated to generating figures and tables displayed on this page. For a more detailed analysis of the Public Assistance data, refer to the public-assistance.ipynb notebook.

3. Data

1) OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/disaster-declarations-summaries-v2. This product uses the FEMA OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Description:

Disaster Declarations Summaries is a summarized dataset describing all federally declared disasters. This dataset lists all official FEMA Disaster Declarations, beginning with the first disaster declaration in 1953 and features all three disaster declaration types: major disaster, emergency, and fire management assistance. The dataset includes declared recovery programs and geographic areas (county not available before 1964; Fire Management records are considered partial due to historical nature of the dataset).

2) OpenFEMA Dataset: Public Assistance Funded Projects Details - v1

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Public Assistance Funded Projects Details - v1. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/public-assistance-funded-projects-details-v1. This product uses the FEMA OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Description:

The Public Assistance Funded Projects Details dataset contains obligated (financial obligation to grantee) Public Assistance projects, lists public assistance recipients designated as applicants in the data, and a list of every funded, individual project, called project worksheets. Open projects still under pre-obligation processing are not represented. Applicant details can be obtained by relating this dataset with the OpenFEMA Public Assistance Applicants dataset using the Applicant ID field.

FEMA provides supplemental Federal disaster grant assistance for debris removal, emergency protective measures, and the repair, replacement, or restoration of disaster-damaged, publicly owned facilities and the facilities of certain Private Non-Profit (PNP) organizations through the PA Program (CDFA Number 97.036). The PA Program also encourages protection of these damaged facilities from future events by providing assistance for hazard mitigation measures during the recovery process (see FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grants Sections 404 and 406: https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20230426/fema-hazard-mitigation-grants-404-and-406).

4. Additional Resources

5. Say Hello!

Feel free to reach out for further discussions.