When a disaster is declared, PB deploys a team of trained inspectors to an incident site immediately upon notification by FEMA. The PB team must be prepared to accomplish up to 500,000 home inspections in a single incident—anywhere within the potential area of operations. FEMA’s objective is to be able to provide an inspection within three days, which PB fulfills, and then, as appropriate, a check within eight days from the time that help is requested. 

As soon as the call comes, the PB team kicks into gear: project management leadership is deployed, and the necessary number of inspectors gathers at the disaster site. PB has established a PB project office and operations center in Winchester, Virginia, home to the management team and inspection reviewers.

Inspections are documented with handheld computers and then transmitted to the Winchester office electronically, where PB’s quality control staffs review them, ensuring that the requisite number of inspections—which could be in the thousands or even in the hundreds of thousands—are completed correctly, then sends them on to FEMA for their quality review and verification that they are completed within the requisite three day time frame. This allows the FEMA team to process checks quickly, and to get desperately needed recovery funds to homeowners and renters without delay.