An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Fema's Pilot Program for Debris Removal After Hurricanes

Abstract

Hurricane debris poses significant challenges in the post-disaster environment and can result in a variety of debris types. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has put forth efforts to address these challenges through the development of their Pilot Program for Debris Removal that provides guidance and incentives for United States communities to develop FEMA-approved debris management plans. While the literature supports the need for pre-event debris management planning, there appears to be a lack of research that evaluates the effectiveness of FEMA-approved debris management plans in the post-disaster environment. The purpose of this research is therefore to assess the effectiveness of plans developed under the guidance of FEMA's Pilot Program in preparing communities for post-hurricane debris management. Counties that received major disaster declarations for hurricanes between 2011 and 2019 were surveyed to assess their participation in the Pilot Program. The results suggest that the Pilot Program is overall an effective means for preparing communities for post-hurricane debris management.