Emergency Relief Program
DISASTER FIRST STEPS (for funding assistance to local agencies)
- Immediately Contact your local CalOES representative to report damages (CalOES Rep)
- Declare a Local Disaster within 10-days of when the disaster event began
- Report federal on-system roadway disaster damage to Caltrans (IDE Form)
Hot Topics/New News
- New Presidential Declaration issued on 11/21/23 for CA23-4 (Tropical Strom Hilary).
- FEMA (DR-4750) now covering debris removal in Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Riverside, and Siskiyou
- Reminder that debris removal is not eligible for reimbursement through ER program when it is covered by FEMA
- Latest ER Disasters
- NEW CA24-1 November 2023 LA I-10 Structure Fire
- Governor's State of Emergency Proclamation for Los Angeles County
- Please send DAFs for any local damage to ER.DAF.Approvals@dot.ca.gov
- Disaster Start Date: 11/11/23
- DAF Due Date: 2/29/24
- CA23-5 August 2023 Wildfire
- Includes the Smith River Complex fires and the Happy Camp Complex fires
- Governor's State of Emergency Proclamations in 2 counties: Del Norte and Siskiyou
- Disaster Start Date: 8/15/23
- DAF Due Date: 12/29/23
- CA23-4 August 2023 Tropical Storm Hilary
- Governor's State of Emergency Proclamations in 13 counties: Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Siskiyou, Tulare and Ventura
- Disaster Start Date: 8/18/23
- DAF Due Date: 12/29/23
- Quick Release (QR) Funds
- $8.7M of $15.3M QR still available for CA23-4
- CA23-4 QR funds need to be obligated by 3/31/24
- Did You Realize…
- The DAF deadlines, disaster begin dates, and the EO 100% reimbursement end date for each disaster is on this ER web site. See the Disaster Information link (bullet in Emergency Relief Program Websites side menu), then click on the ER Project Disaster Information link.
- You can find disaster Proclamations and other official, ER related documents on this ER web site. Check out the Disaster Declarations link in the Emergency Relief Program Websites side bar, then scroll to the second table on the page (below the Disaster Proclaimed Events and Locations table).
The Program
The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Emergency Relief (ER) Program was authorized by Congress to repair or reconstruct federal-aid routes that have suffered serious damage as a direct result of a declared event (see Title 23, United States Code, Section 125). The program is available to State and Local Agency transportation departments with roads suffering serious damage from natural disasters or catastrophic failures from external causes. ER funding is intended to supplement resources from States, localities and other Federal agencies to help in the repair of facilities damaged by eligible events.
Important Note
Local agencies reporting disaster damage information must report their damages to both CalOES and Caltrans, separately. CalOES and Caltrans separately administer different disaster relief funding programs, with very different requirements. For this reason, local agencies will need to make sure they are sharing all their disaster damage information separately, with both CalOES and Caltrans. Local agencies should not assume the information shared with Caltrans will be shared with CalOES. If the local agency is unsure of who their CalOES contact is they should call their CalOES region to find out. CalOES regional contact information can be obtained on the web at: Regional Operations.
For project specific and call for projects questions, please contact your:
For general program questions you may contact:
Daniel Karavan (Districts 1,2,3)
Dalton LaBoskey (Disricts 4,8,9)
Anmol Mishra (Districts 5,6,10)
Jasdeep Sandhu (Districts 7,11,12)
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