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FEMA continues to take aggressive and proactive steps to address the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The outpouring of support from the private sector to provide medical supplies and equipment has been tremendous.
The following are guidelines on how private sector partners can help by selling or donating medical supplies to the federal government:
To read more about how you can help, visit the FEMA blog.
To learn how you can help slow the spread of COVID-19 review the guidance: 15 Days to Slow the Spread.
To help the public distinguish between rumors and facts about COVID-19, visit the FEMA Coronavirus Rumor Control page.
FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has extended the grace period to renew flood insurance policies from 30 to 120 days, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. This extension will allow additional time for policyholders who may be struggling financially to pay insurance premiums and ensure their policies are not cancelled for nonpayment of premium due to circumstances beyond their control.
If a policy's expiration date is between Feb. 13 and June 15, the NFIP insurer must receive the appropriate renewal premium within 120 days of the expiration date to avoid a lapse in coverage. If a policyholder receives an underpayment notice between Feb. 13 and June 15, then the NFIP insurer must receive the additional premium amount requested within 120 days of the date of the notice.
For more information about renewing flood insurance policies or resolving an underpayment, policyholders can contact their insurance carriers or call the NFIP call center at 1-877-336-2627.
FEMA has expanded capabilities for the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool. These capabilities include census tract data and additional infrastructure layers for all state, local, tribal and territorial jurisdictions across the nation.
This update to the tool enables a better analysis of community resilience indicators. It also allows users to calculate the population of individuals with specific indicator characteristics in selected census tracts. It can be used to inform strategies for preparedness, response and recovery activities related to the coronavirus pandemic and other disasters.
The free Geographic Information System webmap tool allows users to combine layers of community resilience indicators, infrastructure locations and hazard data to visualize, prioritize and implement strategies to impact resilience, response and recovery.
The updated tool also provides important census-tract level demographic information and infrastructure locations related to coronavirus pandemic planning and response efforts. This includes the location and size of infrastructure entities such as hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care facilities, public health departments, and pharmacies; population count and demographics of individuals within a containment zone (e.g. over age 65, disability, education); and visualization tools.
Beginning Thursday, April 2, FEMA will hold a series of one-hour training webinars for the tool, which is available to users on the RAPT site. The Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool is available online. Supporting documents, including an overview document and information about the data layers and sources, can be found on the FEMA website.
Emergency officials across the country are using FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to send important safety messages on the coronavirus pandemic to their local residents.
IPAWS is a national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency alert and information messaging to the public through cell phones and internet applications using Wireless Emergency Alerts and to radio and television via the Emergency Alert System.
As of early Monday, March 30, 50 agencies across 15 states and the District of Columbia, the Navajo Nation and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have sent a total of 88 text messages regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Those messages were sent via Wireless Emergency Alerts, with an additional 26 sent to radios and televisions over the Emergency Alert System.
Messages, some in Spanish language, have ranged from announcing stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders to public health information.
For more information on IPAWS, visit the FEMA website.
IPAWS is a national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency alert and information messaging to the public through cell phones and internet applications using Wireless Emergency Alerts, and to radio and television via the Emergency Alert System.
FEMA Seeks Public Comment on NFIP Publication Regulations
On Feb. 12, FEMA published a Federal Register notice for public comments on two proposed changes to the Code of Federal Regulations regarding publication requirements for the National Flood Insurance Program.
Comments for proposed changes are due no later than April 13. Detailed instruction on how to comment can be found on the Federal Register site.
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FEMA Extends Preparedness Grants Application Deadline
In response to COVID-19, FEMA will extend the deadline to submit applications for the following five preparedness grant programs:
Applications must be received by the new submission deadline of 5 p.m. ET on April 30, 2020 deadline. Additional questions may be directed to the Grants Program Directorate.
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