The President provides authorization for Federal assistance through two types of declarations. The declarations designate the type of incident.

Emergency Declarations:

• An incident that the President determines warrants supplemental emergency assistance to save lives and protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe

Major Disaster Declarations:

• An incident is any natural catastrophe (including any hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, wind driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought), or regardless of cause, fire, flood, or explosion
• Major Disaster Declarations may include a combination of incident types, such as storms and landslides