Facts about FEMA Household Disaster Aid: Examining the 2008 Floods and Tornadoes in Missouri

Very little empirical work has been done on disaster aid in the United States. This paper examines postdisaster grants to households from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the state of Missouri in 2008, when the state experienced flooding, storms, and tornadoes. The paper answers the following questions: What was the aid for? How much was given? How many people applied for aid? How many households received aid and how many were denied? Why were some applicants denied aid? Is there any relationship between aid received and socioeconomic or demographic characteristics of communities? The paper finds that the majority of aid grants are for very small amounts of money, on the order of a few thousand dollars. Over half of aid applications are denied, often because of ineligible or insufficient damage. The paper provides some important basic information on the nature of disaster grants to households and also generates several hypotheses for future research.