(WXYZ) — Damage assessments will begin this week in relation to the flooding that occurred in late June.
The assessments will be done by Michigan State Police, FEMA, U.S. Small Business Administration and officials in Wayne County.
The state says the assessments are one of the initial steps in the federal disaster declaration process.
Five teams will be canvassing Wayne County to assess and validate home damage and disaster impacts against federal assistance eligibility criteria.
Assessment teams will be collecting disaster impact information, including total number of homes affected and degree of damage incurred, extent of insurance coverage, cause and concentration of damage, and homeownership rates of impacted homes.
Since disasters affect communities differently, teams will also document specific characteristics of each that may impact their ability to recover. In addition, teams will document disaster-related casualties, resources already available from other sources, and critical infrastructure that may be unavailable for an extended time—i.e. hospitals, schools, utilities and nursing homes—as this could also significantly affect a community’s ability to recover. Teams will collect this data by talking to as many local officials, renters, homeowners and business owners as possible.
Assessments for public assistance—or federal grant funding to local government jurisdictions and eligible private non-profits for the repair, replacement, or restoration of disaster-damaged infrastructure and costs incurred for emergency actions taken to protect lives or property—will also start this week.
