Where did FEMA's rebuilding money go in the last month? We pulled the public data this morning and sorted it by category. The short answer: utilities, by a wide margin. And most of the money sat in a small number of big projects.
First, a few terms.
- PA means FEMA's Public Assistance program. It helps cities, counties, states, tribes, and some nonprofits pay to clean up and rebuild public things after a declared disaster.
- A project worksheet, or PW, is the record for one PA project. It names the work, the cost, and the category.
- An obligation is when FEMA formally sets money aside for a worksheet. It is a big step. But it is not a contract, and it is not a bid. Our obligation explainer goes deeper.
- Federal share is the part FEMA pays. The local applicant usually pays the rest.
This note is educational. It is not legal advice, not FEMA guidance, and not a bid board. Record of Sale, LLC operates RebuildAlert. Questions go to publisher@noticenearby.com (email only).
The seven categories, A through G
PA sorts permanent and emergency work into seven lettered categories:
- A – Debris removal
- B – Emergency protective measures (things like sandbags, shelters, and emergency repairs)
- C – Roads and bridges
- D – Water control facilities (levees, dams, drainage channels)
- E – Public buildings and equipment
- F – Public utilities (power, water, sewer, and similar systems)
- G – Parks, recreation, and other
There is also Category Z, which covers management costs. That is overhead, not field work. We list it separately below. Our category guide and the free category picker explain each letter for contractors.
Fresh numbers from OpenFEMA (pulled October 5, 2026)
On Monday, October 5, 2026, at about 9:15 AM Pacific time, we queried FEMA's public OpenFEMA API. We used the Public Assistance Funded Projects Details v2 dataset. We asked for every worksheet whose first obligation date fell on or after September 5, 2026. FEMA returned 1,120 rows. The first obligation dates ran from September 8 to October 5, 2026.
Here is the Category A–G picture:
| Category | Worksheets | Federal share obligated | Share of A–G dollars | Large projects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A – Debris | 91 | $26.1 million | 4.8% | 5 |
| B – Emergency measures | 189 | $101.5 million | 18.7% | 17 |
| C – Roads and bridges | 211 | $55.8 million | 10.3% | 18 |
| D – Water control | 26 | $30.6 million | 5.7% | 4 |
| E – Buildings and equipment | 142 | $71.3 million | 13.2% | 12 |
| F – Utilities | 105 | $229.8 million | 42.4% | 21 |
| G – Parks and other | 73 | $26.6 million | 4.9% | 8 |
| Total A–G | 837 | $541.9 million | 100% | 85 |
Outside A–G, Category Z (management costs) added 282 worksheets and $36.6 million. One more row was coded Category I, at $7,279.
The 837 A–G worksheets came from 107 different disasters in 39 states and territories.
Three things the data shows
1. Utilities led, but roads had the most worksheets
Category F was only 105 worksheets. Yet it took $229.8 million, or 42 percent of all A–G money. Utility jobs are often big and costly. Category C, roads and bridges, had the most worksheets (211) but only about 10 percent of the money. Many road jobs are small.
So if you count jobs, think roads. If you count dollars, think utilities.
2. A few large projects held most of the money
FEMA labels each worksheet "Small" or "Large" based on a dollar line set for the year the disaster was declared. In this pull, only 85 of 837 worksheets were Large. That is about 10 percent. But those 85 carried $463.2 million, or about 85 percent of the federal share. The other 752 small worksheets added up to $78.7 million.
Our small vs large note explains the current $1,093,800 line and why the label follows the declaration date.
3. Obligation comes late, often more than a year late
We measured the days from each disaster's declaration date to the worksheet's first obligation date. The middle value, or median, was 519 days. That is about 17 months.
- 345 worksheets (41 percent) were obligated within one year of the declaration.
- 187 worksheets (22 percent) took more than two years.
- The oldest disaster in this pull was declared in 2016.
By declaration year, 336 worksheets came from 2026 disasters, 161 from 2025, and 205 from 2024. The rest were older.
This matters for timing. A fresh obligation does not mean a fresh disaster. And it does not mean work starts tomorrow. The applicant still has to hire, and that follows public bidding rules. Our notes on declaration date vs obligation date and procurement timing after obligation cover what comes next.
Where the money landed
Top places by A–G federal share in this 30-day window:
| State or territory | Worksheets | Federal share |
|---|---|---|
| Puerto Rico | 44 | $187.4 million |
| Oregon | 37 | $38.3 million |
| North Carolina | 47 | $33.2 million |
| New York | 29 | $28.7 million |
| Louisiana | 33 | $27.7 million |
Kentucky had the most A–G worksheets of any state, at 112, worth $23.3 million.
Puerto Rico's total came mostly from Disaster 4339, Hurricane Maria, declared in September 2017. Several large Category F power-grid worksheets were first obligated in mid-September 2026. The biggest was about $48.6 million in federal share. That is nine years after the storm, which shows how long big rebuilds can run.
Oregon ranked second. The largest Oregon row was Disaster 4854, "Battle Mountain Complex Fires," a Category B worksheet with about $35.9 million in federal share, first obligated September 15, 2026.
What a contractor can do with this
- Match your trade to the letter. Debris haulers watch A. Road crews watch C. Electrical, water, and sewer firms watch F. Builders watch E.
- Read the applicant, not FEMA. FEMA does not hire the contractor. The city, county, district, or utility does.
- Use the federal share as a clue, not a price. Federal share is FEMA's part, not the contract value. The free federal share calculator splits a number you type in. It does not look up a worksheet.
- Expect a wait. With a median of 519 days from declaration to first obligation, plan your pipeline in months, not days.
How RebuildAlert fits in
RebuildAlert reads OpenFEMA every day. It sends a digest of newly obligated Category A–G worksheets for the counties or states you watch. Each line shows the project, category, federal share, county, disaster, and first obligation date. It does not include Category Z, Individual Assistance, or flood insurance claims.
The free county watch ROI tool helps you decide if a watch is worth your time. Plans are on the pricing page: one state or nationwide. All tools are free.
How we pulled these numbers
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA API, PublicAssistanceFundedProjectsDetails v2, queried October 5, 2026, around 9:15 AM PT. Filter: firstObligationDate ge '2026-09-05'. Example: the exact query. Dollar figures use the federalShareObligated field. Project size uses FEMA's projectSize field. Days to obligation compare declarationDate to firstObligationDate. FEMA updates this data often, so the same query on another day may return different numbers.
Limits
OpenFEMA rows can change after they post. Worksheets get adjusted. An obligation is not an award to you, and it is not a solicitation. RebuildAlert is not affiliated with FEMA or DHS. The federal government does not vouch for analyses made after data leave OpenFEMA.
Record of Sale, LLC operates RebuildAlert. Contact publisher@noticenearby.com, email only.