Agencies’ Policies and Procedures Do Not Differentiate Between Rural and Urban Counties

Neither SBA’s nor FEMA’s disaster declaration policies and procedures differ with respect to whether the affected area is considered rural or urban. The extent to which the damage is covered by insurance. As shown in figure 1, the median number of days that elapsed during both intervals was greater for rural and very rural counties than for urban and very urban counties. As noted above, neither FEMA’s nor SBA’s factors for assessing requests for disaster declarations and helping determine whether or not to grant assistance include any measure of population density. SBA, on the other hand, denied a greater proportion of requests for rural and very rural counties than for urban and very urban counties. Period Between Incident and Gubernatorial Request

One factor affecting the length of time between a disaster incident and a gubernatorial request for a declaration was how quickly a preliminary damage assessment could be made. Period Between Gubernatorial Request and Declaration Decision

The factors that affected the length of time between a gubernatorial request and a declaration decision included (1) the extent of documentation in the governor’s request and (2) in the case of requests for SBA’s assistance, whether or not the request was included in a request for a presidential declaration. Disaster Declaration Processes

Although the two agencies operate under separate authorities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) follow similar processes for federal disaster declarations. Processing Times for Disaster Declaration Requests

With some exceptions, the times taken for governors to request a presidential or SBA disaster declaration and the times taken for the President or SBA Administrator to reach a decision were longer for rural and very rural counties. Very rural (1)
Rural (30)
Urban (13)
Very urban (11)
All (55)
Very rural (15)
Rural (22)
Urban (53)
Very urban (34)
All (124)

Factors Affecting Timing of Declaration Process

To identify factors that may influence the time that elapses during the disaster declaration process, we reviewed selected cases of disaster declaration requests at FEMA and SBA. On August 3, the governor requested SBA assistance. The time from the governor’s request to the presidential decision was shorter than average for all 18 requests received. 2. 3. 4. To compare the length of time each agency took to respond to requests for rural and urban areas and to compare the proportion of requests for rural areas that were granted with the corresponding proportion for urban areas, we developed a database using FEMA’s and SBA’s disaster declaration request records and Bureau of the Census’ county and state information.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the federal disaster declaration process, focusing on: (1) whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster declaration policies differ for rural and urban areas; (2) the length of time taken to respond to disaster declaration requests for rural and urban areas; (3) the proportion of requests granted for rural areas, as compared with the corresponding proportion for urban areas; and (4) factors that influence disaster declaration processing time.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) neither FEMA's nor SBA's disaster declaration policies differ with respect to whether the affected area is rural or urban; (2) both agencies use criteria such as measures of damage to homes, businesses, and public facilities to assess requests for disaster declarations and to help determine whether or not to grant assistance; (3) neither agency's criteria include a measure of population density; (4) for requests received in calendar 1993 and 1994, the time that elapsed between the governors' requests and the declaration decisions by the President or SBA was longer for rural and very rural counties than for urban or very urban counties; (5) for example, the median processing time for requests to FEMA for very rural counties was 11 days, and for very urban counties, it was 7 days; (6) similarly, the time that elapsed between the occurrence of a "disaster incident" and the governor's request for a disaster declaration was longest for very rural counties and shortest for very urban counties (medians of 10 days and 4 days, respectively, for requests made to the President); (7) in disasters declared by the President, FEMA made a greater proportion of very rural counties (93 percent) eligible for assistance than any other type of county; (8) in contrast, SBA declared a greater proportion of urban and very urban counties (58 percent and 70 percent, respectively) eligible for assistance than rural and very rural counties; (9) in the cases GAO reviewed, various factors affected the time required for the declaration process; one factor affecting the length of time between a disaster incident and a gubernatorial request for a declaration was how quickly damage assessments could be made; and (10) among the factors that affected the length of time between a gubernatorial request and a declaration decision was the extent to which the damage was documented in the governor's request.