Adapting and Advancing: Forerunner’s Response to FEMA’s New Preliminary Damage Assessment Guidelines

On July 1, 2025, FEMA released updates to its Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) Guide, introducing new standards that will govern how communities and agencies conduct and document disaster assessments. While these changes may seem subtle at first glance, they underscore a broader push toward procedural clarity, better data capture, and standardization – trends that directly align with Forerunner’s mission to empower local governments in disaster preparedness and recovery.

Forerunner will adapt our product and documentation to support our partners through these changes.

Key Shifts in the PDA Process

The most significant procedural change is FEMA’s reinforcement of a two-step assessment workflow:

• Initial Damage Assessments (IDAs): These are rapid assessments conducted shortly after an incident to determine whether a PDA is needed.
  
  
• Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs): These remain the standard, formal assessments of physical damage that support disaster declarations.
  

While IDAs have been bypassed in practice, the guidance reestablishes them as a distinct and important step. Communities are now encouraged to perform IDAs to determine if a PDA or a joint PDA (JPDA) with FEMA is necessary. This shift suggests the need for earlier situational awareness capabilities, prompting Forerunner to explore the addition of an IDA inspection feature in the platform.

Forerunner Product Updates in Response to the Guidance

Our product team has identified several meaningful updates in response to the new guidance:

Addition of PA PDA Capabilities

Forerunner will introduce a Public Assistance (PA) PDA form to complement our existing Individual Assistance (IA) PDA tools. This new form will include fields necessary for evaluating public infrastructure damage, including:

• Applicant type (e.g., local governments, tribal nations, certain nonprofits)
  
  
• Facility descriptions (name, type, materials, year built, etc.)
  
  
• Categories of work (Debris Removal, Roads and Bridges, Utilities, etc.)
  
  
• Cost estimates and supporting documentation
  
  

Though many PA PDAs will occur on community assets, we will add support across accounts to lay the groundwork for integration, especially helpful for communities tracking assets like schools and libraries on mobile.

Enhancements to IA PDA Forms

To ensure alignment with FEMA’s updated classifications, we will make the following changes to our IA PDA* forms:

• Clarified terminology by renaming the existing PDA form to “IA PDA”

• Added ‘Primary or Secondary Residence’ field – a FEMA-required data point not previously captured

• Updated damage classification descriptions to reflect FEMA’s redefined thresholds (which will likely increase the number of structures classified as "major damage")
  

These changes will help local teams collect more accurate data and ensure consistency with FEMA expectations, particularly important for calculating impacts like Substantial Damage Estimates (SDEs).

_{*Upon community request, Forerunner will create a form for an IDA, but will not add IDAs to all accounts by default.}

Strengthening Documentation and Workflows

Knowledge Base Updates

We will enhance our support materials to ensure users are prepared:

• New documentation for tribal community assessments
  
  
• Clarifications on FROC fields and AI-assisted cost estimates
  
  
• Guidance for printing and submitting PDA forms based on Appendix F of FEMA’s guide
  

Improving Mobile Functionality

Given FEMA’s emphasis on geospatial and photographic evidence (especially during IDAs), we will evaluate:

• Geotagging for photos taken in our mobile app
  
  
• Data field expansion to match FEMA’s suggested IDA checklists
  
  
• Optional inclusion of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) assessments, particularly for affected areas
  

Forerunner will incorporate FEMA's draft letter and report templates into our reporting suite to reduce redundancy and streamline communication with state and federal partners.

Looking Ahead

FEMA’s recent updates to the PDA Guide reflect a proactive and data-driven disaster response. Forerunner is dedicated to evolving our tools to support communities in navigating these requirements with confidence, precision, and ease.

If your community is preparing for the new guidance or already updating your PDA protocols, we’re here to help. Reach out to support@withforerunner.com to learn more about Forerunner’s PDA workflows.