Two of the largest sources of disaster relief grant funding are the FEMA Public Assistance and FHWA Emergency Relief programs. Our experts in these programs have facilitated more than $3 billion in federal reimbursements for local government entities as grantee representatives.

Our clients have benefitted from our support during audits performed by the Office of Inspector General. We have developed training sessions for both programs, and presented at the County Emergency Operation Centers. Our team conducted table top exercises regarding the FHWA-ER program for the Florida Department of Transportation to over 650 local government representatives throughout the State of Florida.

Grantee Support

The functions we have performed at the State level include preliminary damage assessments, writing and processing PWs, appeals, requests for reimbursements, requests for alternate or improved projects, conducting applicant briefings, kickoff meetings, hazard mitigation plan development, performing project close outs and final inspections. The cost for our services was directly reimbursed under a Category "Z" PW.

Sub-Grantee Support

Our approach to recovery allows a sub-grantee to manage and control their reimbursements of disaster related costs and ensure full compliance with the latest policies and program requirements. Most of our costs to a sub-grantee are reimbursable as Direct Administrative Costs under FEMA policy 9525.9.

O'Brien's technical experts in the FHWA-ER and the FEMA-PA programs have assisted local governments to maximize their reimbursement of disaster costs between these two programs in full compliance with their respective requirements. We have written the following types of projects, reports, plans and requests:

• DDIRs to secure FHWA-ER funding for local applicants
• PWs to secure FEMA-PA funding for local governments
• Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) requests, as well as 404 and 406 mitigation projects and Benefit Cost Analysis (BCAs)
• Debris Management Plans of varying degrees of complexity, including:
  • Statewide for the Florida Department of Transportation,
  • Countywide for Collier County, Florida,
  • Citywide for the City of Miami, and
  • District wide for the Broward County Public School District, the 5th largest in the country.