The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) recently updated the Disaster Recovery Assistance Program-Public Infrastructure (DRAP-PI) as required by Act 21 of 2026. The DRAP-PI program provides financial assistance to county and municipal governments after a qualifying disaster. 

After a disaster, county and municipal emergency management coordinators identify damage to residential, business, municipal property, and infrastructure and report it to PEMA. After damage reports are received, PEMA analyzes the information to determine if thresholds were surpassed to activate DRAP-PI. 

The updated DRAP-PA guidelines include information on submitting damage reports and the steps required for municipalities to apply for DRAP-PI Grants. Click here to read the publication of guidelines in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. 

PEMA also recently hosted the first quarterly meeting of the Emergency Readiness Advisory Group, established by Governor Shaprio’s Executive Order 2026-04. The meeting provided state agency leaders with the opportunity to share feedback regarding policy and fiscal support changes from the federal government have impacted emergency operations. The group also began working on creating the Commonwealth Surge Workforce, a group of employees from across the Commonwealth who can be temporarily reassigned to support PEMA’s disaster recovery efforts on an as-needed basis. Click here to read the press release.