By Richard Vague, Secretary, PA Department of Banking and Securities; David (Randy) Padfield, Director, PA Emergency Management Agency; Stacy Garrity, PA State Treasurer

At the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), we are responsible for coordinating preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation programs and activities with counties, state agencies, and other stakeholders. The side of our operation that citizens are probably most familiar with is the response phase, when the coordination of direct life-saving activities during natural or human-caused disasters and emergencies is critical.

However, most of our day-to-day work as an agency centers around the recovery and mitigation phases of emergency management.

The recovery phase focuses on the support of disaster survivors. Even with federal recovery programs that may be available as well as insurance, there are gaps in being able to adequately support disaster survivors at the level needed.

As an example, many communities faced flooding damage as a result of Tropical Storm Isaias last summer. That storm alone affected hundreds of buildings throughout various counties and caused several millions of dollars in damage. Despite the devastating loss many families faced, Pennsylvania was not approved for a FEMA Disaster Declaration for Individual Assistance, leaving Pennsylvania families with the daunting task of recovering on their own.

If not prepared, the impact can be devastating. While there are other programs available to assist such as Small Business Administration low-interest disaster loans and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs), there are still significant gaps in funding the recovery process, which adversely impact the disaster survivor’s ability to recover from the impacts of an incident in a timely manner.