When disaster strikes, communities should be able to count on rapid and effective federal support. But too often, the processes designed to help them recover are delayed by outdated processes and bureaucracy.
In the wake of a major flood in South Carolina, one local mayor told us, “It took 4 years and 2 approvals to get reimbursements from FEMA Public Assistance. We had to submit the latitude and longitude to 6 decimal places of the fallen trees, with before and after photos of every tree.”
In an era where artificial intelligence (AI), satellite imagery, and drone footage can deliver insights in real-time, there’s a better way.
The United States leads the world in technological innovation. But when it comes to how government agencies operate on the ground, particularly in the aftermath of disasters, we’re still stuck in the past. This disconnect is costing disaster survivors valuable time, taxpayers money, and communities critical momentum in their recovery efforts.
The challenge: a 20th century response to 21st century disasters
FEMA’s damage assessment and disaster aid processes are still largely manual. Field staff physically visit individual homes to document destruction, and communities are forced to navigate poorly designed, fractured systems to get approval and payment for necessary recovery projects. This approach is not only inefficient, it’s unfair.
Those with the time, technology, and know-how to persist through red tape often fare better than their more vulnerable neighbors. But having the upper-hand means paying for external contractors and experts, which many communities cannot afford.
Meanwhile, private sector companies use AI to assess insurance claims, route deliveries, and analyze vast datasets in real time. The gap between what’s possible and what’s being used in federal disaster response is massive and untapped.
The opportunity: leverage American innovation to help Americans recover
The solution is not to reinvent the wheel, it’s to expand how we apply the tools we already have.
AI can help streamline and standardize damage assessments. Satellite and drone technology can provide near-instant visual evidence of flood, fire, or hurricane damage. AI models can process this data to prioritize the most heavily impacted areas and triage FEMA’s in-person follow-up. This means getting help to the people who need it first, not just those who can afford to fill out paperwork fastest. While we’ve begun to test and pilot these applications, it’s time to rapidly accelerate this work.
AI can also dramatically improve FEMA’s intake and review process. With the right tools, documents submitted by disaster survivors could be automatically organized, checked for completeness, and even initially reviewed, getting funds to families faster.
This isn’t about replacing human judgment. It’s about using technology to support FEMA staff, increase consistency across cases, and make better decisions faster.
A path forward: smarter procurement, better policy
For FEMA to modernize effectively, Congress and the White House need to empower the agency to partner with private sector innovators. This starts with reforming procurement. Right now, FEMA’s technology acquisition process is slow, rigid, and risk-averse, the opposite of what’s needed in a crisis. The contracting that’s happening right now is locking in today’s technology for the next five to ten years. With technology evolving quickly, we need to have a nimble process that can adjust to the latest updates.
Congress should direct FEMA to open a dynamic procurement process that allows it to quickly identify and deploy proven technology platforms for disaster assessment, information management, and individual intake. By inviting multiple companies to a sandbox, industry and public sector leaders can develop and test their platforms for immediate impact. This process would cut through red tape while maintaining transparency and competition.
Additionally, FEMA should be encouraged, and funded, to pilot innovative technologies like AI-driven damage analysis and document automation, with the goal of full-scale deployment in future disasters. The technology is ready. What’s needed now is the will to reform the system.
The American Flood Coalition has long advocated for changes to simplify the post-disaster system. The Trump administration has organized the FEMA Review Council to consider such reforms and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is working on a comprehensive bipartisan FEMA reform package that includes several of AFC’s policy solutions, including to unleash technological innovation to expedite damage assessments.
Every community in the country stands to benefit from a disaster response system that is faster, more accurate, and more fair. For example, in one Iowa town, the public works director responsible for writing assistance applications is also responsible for going outside every time it rains to manually start pumps to prevent further flooding. That civil servant, and that community, underscore how meaningful it would be to simplify processes that often exceed 30 steps, 500-page applications, and 200-page guides.
By leveraging American innovation and empowering FEMA with the right tools and partnerships, we can help communities recover more quickly and make every taxpayer dollar go further. It’s time to bring our disaster response system into the 21st century.
