Share on Social Media

Reimbursement for snow assistance and winter storms requires highly-specific documentation, often for specific time periods or completing certain tasks. FEMA typically reimburses for a continuous 48-hour period of the storm, and for specific tasks like making two lanes passable on an arterial roadway.

Use these tips to ensure your locality’s snow removal agency has proper documentation to provide FEMA for reimbursement — if the agency doesn’t document properly during the storm, it’s nearly impossible to backtrack and get the substantial level of detail FEMA requires.

Know what storms are eligible. 

• Counties can receive snow assistance if they are determined to have received record snowfall or near record snowfall, based on historical data. Assistance for severe winter storm events is based on the severity of the event and the locality’s ability to respond to the incident.

Be aware that FEMA often provides snow assistance for an eligible continuous 48-hour period.

• Before you start curating expense reports and data to submit for reimbursement, identify what your locality’s most expensive continuous 48-hours were and focus your efforts on providing the sufficient level of detail for that time period. The 48-hour period can’t be changed after it’s submitted.

Know what you can and can’t be reimbursed for in advance.

• Consider creating pre-developed templates for each eligible activity that outline the information FEMA requires; line items could include who was operating a specific plow, on what roadway, when and how many tons of salt it dumped. Eligible costs typically include snow labor, snow equipment, salting and sanding materials, contracted services and rentals.

Track equipment usage and status for 12-hour shifts.

• FEMA might only reimburse for expenses associated with clearing certain roadways for a specific time period, so it’s important to have a breakdown of equipment usage by time. For example, you might know you used 7,000 tons of salt total, but you might need to identify how much you used in the first 24 hours.

Detail what, where, how much, for how long and by who resources and equipment were used.

• The most important things to track during a snow storm are materials, where your equipment was used (geographically), what it was used for and who was operating it. If FEMA only reimburses for clearing arterial roadways, for example, you’ll have to provide detail on which plows were used, how much salt was dumped, who was operating and for how long.

Consider implementing shift reports and a work order system.

• Instituting shift reports during the event can be an easy way to provide FEMA with detail on the status of equipment used for specific time periods. A work order system that integrates employee’s costs and hourly rates can be useful for providing detail on labor costs.

Have a system for tracking overtime.

• FEMA typically only reimburses for overtime labor, so it’s important to have overtime rates established ahead of time in writing; you’ll likely have to provide copies of employee contracts to FEMA.
• Ensure employees are accurately recording their hours throughout the event.
• Be aware that FEMA will not reimburse for paid rest periods.

As an example of the eligible activities and documentation requirements requested by FEMA for snow assistance, see the presentation distributed to counties by the state of Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) that outlines eligible agencies, functions and documentation required by counties in the state to submit for FEMA reimbursement after Winter Storm Stella in March 2017.