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Evacuation & Sheltering Assistance under an Emergency Declaration in a COVID-19 Environment

Release Date:
Out 22, 2020

Due to the added complexities of conducting evacuations and sheltering during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in limited circumstances grant assistance for evacuation and sheltering may be authorized to states, tribes, and territories under an emergency declaration for an imminent or pre-landfall incident. The purpose of this Fact Sheet is to describe eligible evacuation and sheltering costs for those emergency declarations under which grant reimbursement is authorized.

Eligible Evacuation and Sheltering Costs

Eligible costs are outlined in the Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide (version 4) and the approval of these costs is limited to that which is reasonable and necessary to address the needs of the incident and may include:

  • Congregate Sheltering – Facility costs, staff costs, supplies and commodities, and shelter services.
  • Non-congregate Sheltering – FEMA’s Interim Policy Emergency Non-Congregate Sheltering during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (104-009-18) provides eligibility criteria for the use of non-congregate sheltering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Evacuation – Transportation to evacuate and return survivors, household pets, service animals, assistance animals, luggage, and durable medical equipment, as well as emergency medical transportation.
  • Pre-positioning of resources – Costs for the pre-positioning of resources to execute an evacuation or the delivery of emergency medical care during the evacuation.
  • Emergency Supplies and Commodities – Costs for purchasing supplies or using stock to conduct sheltering and evacuation activities.
  • Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) – Costs associated with operating an EOC are eligible when necessary to conduct sheltering and evacuation activities, including increased utility costs, costs to lease a facility, supply costs and meals.
  • Security – Eligible emergency protective measures and costs include security necessary to conduct sheltering activities.
  • Law Enforcement – Overtime costs related to evacuation activities may be eligible.
  • Emergency Communications – Dissemination of information to the public to provide warnings and guidance on sheltering and evacuation activities.

Additional Information

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