Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation Plan, and Grant Administration

State of Alaska

Home › Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation Plan, and Grant Administration

About the project

Tidal Basin supports the State of Alaska with various services, including technical assistance, staffing and program management support for disaster recovery operations, state-run Individual Assistance (IA) efforts, disaster closeout assistance, and hazard mitigation grant program augmentation. More than $350 million in funding damages in response to an earthquake and various flooding events.

Key takeaways

Prime Contractor: Tidal Basin
Project Dates:  April 2011 to Present

Download case study

Challenge

Tidal Basin has provided staff for registering, planning, verifying, and estimating damages, as well as applicant case management. Whether or not a federal disaster declaration is implemented, the State of Alaska has its own state-led IA/Public Assistance (PA) programs. Tidal Basin reviewed the state’s IA/PA administrative plans and incorporated those into the overall strategy, ensuring compliance with both federal and state programs. This process maximized the dollar amount the state received.

Solution

Tidal Basin has provided staff for registering, planning, verifying, and estimating damages, as well as applicant case management. Additionally, we furnished personnel for all aspects of FEMA PA program office, field operations, and administration. Many of Alaska’s sub-recipients were in rural areas with limited population and capacity.

Tidal Basin currently has three full-time HMGP staff members augmenting DR-4413 who are reviewing over 50 intent-to-applies for feasibility and eligibility. Once determinations are made, the three FTE’s will work the eligible applications throughout the whole review process to closeout.

Tidal Basin also has 15 full-time PA staff members augmenting staff for various current and legacy federal and state-declared events, as well as 10 full-time IA staff members augmenting staff for three state-declared events.

Key Highlights

Assisted with 11 federal and eight state declarations
Managed over $1.5 billion in projects and cases
Developed standardized training methodology
Successful closeout of over 300 projects and three events
FEMA Public Assistance Program – PDA through event closeout
Technical assistance staffing
Program office, field operations, and administration
Project worksheet formulation, process automation and optimization
Resource development
Obligation of over 600 PWs and more than $900 million
Disaster assistance to over 12,000 survivors

Resilience Delivered

All Hazards Incident Management Team Training

Developed and delivered DHS-approved All Hazards Incident Management Team training consisting of Type 3 Position-Specific Training for All-Hazards Incident Commander, Operations Section Chief, Planning Section Chief, Logistics Section Chief, Finance/ Admin Section Chief, Safety Officer, Liaison Officer and Public Information Officer to the Kenai Peninsula Borough. All eight courses were taught simultaneously within a three-week period to meet budget and schedule requirements.

Closeout Team

Tidal Basin ensures payments are made only to eligible applicants, avoiding duplication of benefits and within the expenditure deadline assigned by the U.S. Treasury. For example, Tidal Basin coordinates with counties and cities with direct allocations from the Treasury to prevent duplicative payments throughout the state.

Disaster Recovery Framework

Developed the State Disaster Recovery Framework and a new IA field guide, providing programmatic and operational framework for structuring and implementing long-term disaster recovery assistance to local governments for community restoration.

Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)

Assisting on application development, grant management, benefit cost analysis, financial reimbursement, procurement, and closeout for DR-4413. Our role has expanded to include DR-4533.

AK-236, AK-237 and AK-238

Changed the State IA program, increasing the funding available to individuals and reducing the overall cash outlay of the State. The changes to the program procedures proved more efficient and cost effective for both the sub-recipients and the State.

DR-4054-AK Severe Storm

Assisted 30 sub-recipients to document 113 PWs totaling an estimated $3.2 million in damages.

DR-4122-AK Flooding

Assisted 23 sub-recipients to document 96 PWs totaling more than $16 million in damages and to distribute nearly $3.5 million in IA funding.

DR-4162-AK Severe Storms

Assisted 2 sub-recipients to quantify approximately $11.5 million in damages.

DR-4413-AK Cook Inlet Earthquake

Currently assisting the State in recovering from the largest declared disaster in their history. Assisting 51 sub-recipients document 136 PWs (to date) totaling an estimated $33 million in damages. Total damages for this disaster are estimated to be $309 million.

Your knowledge of the complex governmental regulations and equally complex insurance and adjusting issues really helped the county maximize the public assistance that was available after all of these disasters. You delivered what you promised, and we are confident in your ability and the ability of your firm to provide these services fully on a technical and professional level yet be able to translate clearly and concisely the intricate and sometimes subjective FEMA regulations which we could not have done without you.

The State of Alaska…[has] a significant investment in the disaster recovery process for both state and federally declared events…. The collaboration with Tidal Basin in these efforts has been so successful and seamless that in most instances applicants and FEMA staff don’t even realize we have contractors on board unless we tell them. Our interaction with Tidal Basin staff and managers works and feels like true teammates and the result is a faster, more comprehensive delivery of disaster recovery resources to survivors.

Months after the storm passed, the County was still faced with tremendous burdens related to the insurance coverage issues and FEMA and MEMA eligibility issues. Jackson County hired your organization to provide professional services for disaster assistance, remediation, restoration and recovery efforts….Their expertise with governmental regulations, the complex FEMA process and insurance adjustments resulted in our successful claim for over $2 million in additional FEMA Public Assistance funding specifically; in our successful negotiations with our insurance carrier; and in numerous other increases in the values FEMA and MEMA initially designated for County projects. Jackson County will always be mindful of the help we received from you when we needed it most.