Damage assessment operations manual: a guide to assessing damage and impact

FEMA's Damage Assessment Operations Manual is intended to expedite decision-making and the delivery of assistance by defining national standards for assessing damage and clearly outlining the information considered when evaluating requests for a major disaster declaration.

To support its objective, this manual aims to achieve three goals:

1. Promote accuracy by clearly defining the information and documentation that should be collected to assess damage and support requests for Stafford Act assistance;
2. Promote consistency by standardizing the criteria used to assess damage to residential homes and offering clear guidance on assessing damage to infrastructure;
3. Promote efficiency by empowering emergency management at all levels with the structure and information needed to streamline damage assessment efforts.