Natural disasters are a significant cause of fatalities and economic loss in the United States, with recovery as the most expensive and time-consuming phase of disaster management. To improve disaster response, communities need access to new technologies that streamline and optimize disaster recovery operations and assistance programs. At the same time, state and local governments need to reduce the time necessary to restore critical functions, enable community lifelines, and most importantly, help survivors get back to their daily lives.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Community and Infrastructure Resilience Program initiated the Disaster Recovery Project to develop new processes, products, and standards that will improve operations and outcomes for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. These new processes, products, and standards will promote national preparedness objectives and protective measures, help communities prepare for catastrophic disasters, and reduce the complexity of FEMA’s grant programs. In addition, this project strives to improve the ability to track and monitor post-disaster rebuild efforts and restoration functions through improved damage assessment and faster decision making to help expedite recovery operations, making them safer and more efficient.
The Disaster Recovery project seeks to improve management and mitigation of the negative effects of natural disasters. Efforts will include accelerating the time it takes to receive recovery aid and streamlining individual and household assistance programs to affected communities by expediting delivery of assistance directly to disaster survivors in critical need. In addition, tracking and monitoring rebuild and restoration functions through improved damage assessments and faster decision making will help to speed and simplify recovery efforts.
News
- Blog: Ongoing Hurricane Recovery Efforts
- Blog: Sending our Support after Hurricane Helene
- Feature Article: SARCOP: One Team. One Mission. One Map
- Feature Article: Operationalizing Community Lifelines - How S&T Supports the Next-Generation Emergency Operations Center
- Feature Article: Using Hydrogen to Power Disaster Relief
- News Release: DHS S&T Issues $1.9M Contract to Help FEMA Stabilize Community Resources in Disasters
- Blog: Sparking Innovation to Fight Fire Around the World
- Technologically Speaking: Hydrogen Is How and Hydrogen Is Now
Resources
Current Activities
- Disaster Recovery Project Area Fact Sheet
- Community Lifeline Status System Fact Sheet
- Emergency Management of Tomorrow Research Fact Sheet
- Fire Science and Decision Support Fact Sheet
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Emergency Relief Truck Fact Sheet and Video
- Mass Fatality Tracking System (MFTS) Fact Sheet
- Urban Search and Rescue Innovation Fact Sheet