The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded a contract potentially worth over $3.6 million to help it prepare for business recovery after natural disasters.

According to a listing on FedBizOpps Sept. 30, FEMA, which heads disaster response for the federal government, awarded the contract to New Jersey-based data analytics company Dun and Bradstreet. The firm-fixed price contract will be for an annual subscription to a national economic data set to help emergency managers prepare for disasters.

The agency decided to procure the data so it has “near real-time” business data to assist in the recovery process and increase efficiency and effectiveness during an outage. The data will allow FEMA to do modeling and analytics of the “before” and “after” state of a potential natural disaster.

FEMA “recognizes that emergency managers require a baseline understanding of pre-disruption conditions and the all-hazards impacts of a disaster to the natural, social, built, and economic environments,” the limited source justification said.

The 12-month contract is worth just shy of $2 million dollars. Also included is an “optional surge” for an event in which FEMA needs to procure additional economic data for affected areas “with surge capability and increased analytic support.”

In its market research, FEMA found that Dun and Bradstreet was the only company with all the required capabilities. Though several federal agencies have national business data, specifically the IRS and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, FEMA wrote that these agencies couldn’t provide data in real-time.

The data from Dun and Bradstreet will aid:

  1. Establishment of pre-disaster business and economic environment baseline;
  2. Tools for operational decision-making support;
  3. Post-disaster assessments;
  4. Continuous monitoring of the economic landscape; and
  5. Recovery progress outlook reporting.
About Andrew Eversden

Andrew Eversden covers all things defense technology for C4ISRNET. He previously reported on federal IT and cybersecurity for Federal Times and Fifth Domain, and worked as a congressional reporting fellow for the Texas Tribune. He was also a Washington intern for the Durango Herald. Andrew is a graduate of American University.

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