This lesson covers the actions taken prior to a site inspection including appropriate documentation, identifying key personnel and points of contact, and coordination with the Site Inspector. This lesson will also review documents and actions that support the site inspection process.

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

• Identify the required documents needed to support the site inspection process
• Discuss the necessary actions prior to any site inspection

The key to an effortless grant application process is to maintain is to keep a well-maintained set of incident-related damage documentation throughout each of the grant phases.

This can be accomplished by providing:

• Relevant pre-incident photos and documentation for comparison to post-incident conditions, if possible
• An itemized Damage Inventory spreadsheet which should be completed at the Recovery Scoping Meeting
• Damage locations (routing / planning), the physical address of the site to be inspected, and GIS coordinates with accurate latitude and longitude

It is very important that the Applicant understands the Damage Inventory spreadsheet should be completed in a timely fashion. The timely completion of the Damage Inventory spreadsheet  allows for a sampling inspection, which saves time and increases efficiency in the process.

All documents should get uploaded into Grants Portal.

Damage Inventory is used by the Applicant to capture all incident-related damage claims. The name of damage line items must always be clear and distinctive, and the description of the line item should provide a high-level summary of damage sustained to a facility and/or work performed.

Descriptions must also accurately explain the:

• Type of facility
• Damaged component(s) of the facility and what caused the damage
• Extent of damage to the facility
• Work completed (temporary repairs, items removed from the facility, etc.)

In cases where flooding occurred, the description must also include the length of time the facility was under water.

Each Damage Inventory line item on the project requires the Applicant to provide source documentation for completed work. If the Applicant is not able to separate the source documentation to support each line item, the project should only have one damage line item.

For 100% completed work Damage Inventory items, Applicants must provide supporting documentation for the completed work claim. The supporting documentation for 100% completed work Damage Inventory items should include specific dimensions of the facility that was repaired. For example, Applicants should provide start and end GPS coordinates for the roads and the lengths, widths, and depths of the roads repaired.

The Site Inspector will call the Applicant's Site Inspection Point of Contact to confirm the site inspection time and meeting place one business day prior to the scheduled site inspection. This call is referred to as the pre-meeting coordination call.

The discussion focuses on whether work has been completed since the time of the site inspection scheduling; if so the inspection is unnecessary, and the Applicant can send receipts to FEMA for eligibility determination and reimbursement.

Accessibility issues and solutions are also determined during the call. The Site Inspector will ask the Applicant about any safety concerns (e.g., high water, locked fences/gates, displaced wildlife) to ensure they will be able to inspect the damaged sites.

In this lesson, participants learned about the actions taken prior to a Site inspection.

The next lesson covers the roles and responsibilities of the Applicant and the FEMA Site Inspector during a site inspection.