The Preliminary Damage Assessment Guide (PDA Guide)—a standard framework for how emergency management officials conduct preliminary damage assessments (PDAs) following a disaster—will be effective starting June 8, 2020.
Joint PDAs with FEMA that take place on or after June 8 must use the new PDA Guide which supersedes FEMA’s current Damage Assessment Operations Manual (2016).
FEMA will accept public comments on the PDA Guide for one year, until June 8, 2021. The purpose of this public comment period is to give state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency management officials an opportunity to provide FEMA feedback on the PDA Guide, the accompanying PDA Pocket Guide, and the tribal-specific PDA appendix.
To submit comments use the appropriate comment matrix below, and send comments to FEMA-RecoveryPolicy-Inbox@fema.dhs.gov.
