Chapter 7 › XI. Eligibility Considerations for Emergency Work

What makes response work eligible as emergency work?

FEMA term

Emergency work (Categories A and B); immediate threat

Short answer

Emergency work is work that must be done immediately to save lives, protect public health and safety, protect improved property, or eliminate or lessen an immediate threat of more damage. It covers debris removal (Category A) and emergency protective measures (Category B), and is due within six months of the declaration.

What FEMA requires

An immediate threat is a threat of additional damage that can reasonably be expected within five years of the declared incident. The incident must have caused the threat, but the threat can come from a different kind of event, such as post-fire debris flows.
The work must be the legal responsibility of an eligible applicant.
For governments, eligibility turns mainly on the immediate threat and legal authority to do the work, not on facility eligibility.
For private nonprofits, emergency work is generally limited to debris removal from, and protective measures for, their own eligible facility.
The deadline is six months from the declaration unless the recipient or FEMA extends it, and FEMA weighs how urgently you acted.

Documentation

Small projects: a detailed description of the work; you can certify the immediate threat, link to the incident, improved property in a declared area, and legal responsibility.
Large projects: a detailed description of the work and the immediate threat, plus records showing the threat (technical reports, inspector reports, photographs) when it isn’t obvious.

Source: PAPPG Table 20.

Watch out · Govstar practitioner advice

Photograph and describe the threat before you remove it. Once the hazard is gone, proving it existed is much harder.

Govstar summarizes FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide in plain language and links to the official text. Govstar is independent and not affiliated with FEMA. This is general guidance, not legal advice.