Disaster Assistance: Information on Declarations for Urban and Rural Areas

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the federal disaster declaration process, focusing on: (1) whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster declaration policies differ for rural and urban areas; (2) the length of time taken to respond to disaster declaration requests for rural and urban areas; (3) the proportion of requests granted for rural areas, as compared with the corresponding proportion for urban areas; and (4) factors that influence disaster declaration processing time.