Welcome to the FEMA Site Inspection Process course.

This course informs Applicants and Recipients how to accurately prepare for and participate in a FEMA site inspection. The course will provide an in-depth look into the site inspection process.

By the end of the course, State, local, Tribal, and Territorial Applicants and Recipients will be able to accurately prepare for and participate in a site inspection; they will know what to expect from FEMA and their own responsibilities regarding the site inspection. Additionally, Applicants and Recipients will be prepared for their role post-site inspection.

Upon completion of this course, the participants will be able to:

• Describe the site inspection process
• Explain the role of the Site Inspector, Applicant and Recipient regarding the site inspection process
• Discuss expectations during and after the site inspection process

This lesson provides an overview of the administrative requirements, goals, and objectives of the course. It also discusses the site inspection process and reviews the process in a sequential order. This lesson will focus on the pre-site inspection actions of the Applicant and Recipient.

Upon completion of this lesson, the participants will be able to:

• Identify administrative requirements of the course
• State the goals and objectives of the course
• Describe the process of a site inspection

The site inspection occurs during Phase II of the Public Assistance process. The purpose of a site inspection is to validate incident-related damages listed on an Applicant's Damage Inventory. The site inspections also includes validation of:

1. The facility definition (including description of materials, location of waterline and its integral ground)
2. What happened to the facility (cause/failure mechanism, dimensions, materials)
3. What the Applicant says it’ll take to restore it to pre-disaster condition

Site inspections are completed with a member of the Applicant's staff or the Applicant's representative, and all information needed to formulate the project's Damage Description and Dimensions will be recorded.

A Site Inspector inspects all sites identified by the Applicant and reports on the list of damages provided, with the exception of the following conditions:

• All parties (FEMA, Recipient, and Applicant) concur on the site's ineligibility
• The Applicant completed the work and validated it through appropriate documentation. (e.g. photographs of the damaged site and the site after repairs area complete, force account records)

The Applicant should be prepared to explain to the Site Inspector how they intend to repair the damaged site. All aspects of site conditions should be clearly articulated to facilitate evaluation of potential future requests for changes to the original scope of work without the need for another site inspection. This information includes:

• Site location, including street address and accurate GPS coordinates
• Photographic documentation of overall site conditions (taken at a distance) and of isolated, specific damages (taken as close-ups) with appropriate descriptions and scale
• Sketches of the site conditions and damages
• Plans, drawings, and/or "as-built" specifications, if applicable

There are several critical actions that an Applicant can take prior to the site inspection. Recall that the Applicant, Program Delivery Manager, and other relevant FEMA Public Assistance personnel should have scheduled the site inspection during or immediately following the Recovery Scoping Meeting. The Applicant has from the Recovery Scoping Meeting until the site inspection date to accomplish the following:

• Collect relevant disaster documentation
• Establish a point of contact that FEMA can reach for site inspection purposes and will accompany the Site Inspector during the day of the inspection
• Determine which tools are necessary for the inspection (mileage counters in trucks, ladders, range finders etc.)
• Participate in the pre-meeting coordination call with the Site Inspector at least 24 hours prior to the site inspection to discuss the order and sequences of sites to be inspected, discuss any potential hazards or safety concerns, and whether any repair work has been done since the time the site inspection was scheduled
• Finalize the time and location of meeting during the inspection

At the beginning of the scheduled site inspection, the Site Inspector introduces all FEMA staff to the Applicant and/or Applicant's representative. They will explain the purpose of the inspection and their staff roles. The Site Inspector will review the Site Inspection Work Order with the Applicant and explain the agenda of the inspection.

The most essential part of the site inspection involves capturing all incident-related damage information. Using the appropriate Site Inspection Report, the Site Inspector will document all damage claimed by the Applicant. The report captures:

• A description of the facility
• Exact dimensions of the damage, including the specific materials and size/capacity/model of the components
• Cause of damage
• Confirmation whether the damages were caused by the incident
• The damages occurred within the incident period

The Site Inspector also completes the special considerations questionnaire on the Site Inspector Report. The Site Inspector takes photos of damage from multiple angles of the site, ensuring lighting and perspective allows reviewers of the photos to clearly see the damages. The Site Inspector discusses with the Applicant how they plan to repair the damages and captures this conversation on the report, including any additional comments provided by the Applicant on how they plan to repair the site.

At the end of the site inspection, the Site Inspector ensures all sections of the Site Inspection Report are complete. The Site Inspector will request the Applicant's review and concurrence on the report by initialing and dating each page.

The Site Inspector will then discuss the next steps after the site inspection. The Site Inspector will notify the Program Delivery Manager once the site inspection is complete.

In this lesson, participants learned about the overall Site inspection process.

The next lesson will cover the actions taken prior to a Site inspection.