Preliminary Damage Assessment

Preliminary Damage Assessment Author Name Institution Affiliation When a disaster overwhelms a nation or state’s response capacity, the governor or chief executive comes forward and requests a disaster declaration from the federal government. In order to evaluate the nation or state’s need for federal assistance, the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) uses a PDA (Preliminary Damage Assessment). It helps to determine the overall magnitude and short-term and long-term effects of the damage. According to Patricia Sylla, a PDA plays an important role in the declaration process. Tribal and state governments use the information of PDA in order to evaluate the whole impact of the disaster (Sylla, 2005). Similarly, FEMA depends on the findings of preliminary damage assessment in order to submit a request to the President regarding whether the disaster declaration i...