ER Assist Damage Assessment Module
Laptop/Desktop Instructions:
Select Client Login in top right corner2
Enter your Username and Password2
Landing Page/Home Page for Government Employees:3
Landing Page/Home Page for Government Agency Contractors:3
5. Select Damage Assessments Module:3
6. Select an Active Event or Create a New Event3
Create New Event (software admins only)4
Make sure “Is Active” is checked and click “Save Event.”5
7. Entering/Creating Site Damage Assessments (aka Report of Damage)5
Choose Between Public (PA) or Private Property (IA) Damage6
Public Infrastructure Damage (aka Public Assistance, PA) Assessments6
Select “+ New Public Infrastructure and Non-Profit (PA) Damage Assessment”6
Responsible Public Agency/Owner (aka Applicant)8
Private Property Damage Assessments:9
GRID VIEW : All Damage Assessments10
Individual Assessment Review/Verification11
Verifying Location (located in “Structure Info” section)12
Help/support section with common questions on https://erassist.freshdesk.com/support/solutions16
2. Contact one of your Agency’s ER Assist software admin16
3. Send software performance issues or bugs to support@erassist.com16
How to Login and Dashboard Overview:
Go to www.erassist.com
Select Client Login in top right corner
Enter your Username and Password
First time users:your username and password will be provided to you by your software admin
To change your password: After logging in, click on your username on the upper left hand corner and select the “reset password” option.
Forgot password:
-
Password reset responses will be sent to your email on file
If you do not have an email on file and need a password reset, have your software admin add an email to your user account, and then press the “forgot password?” on the login screen
4. Landing Page/Home Page
Landing Page/Home Page for Government Employees:
The landing page will display the info of your agency only ER Assist refers to this landing page as a Dashboard.
NOTE: If your agency details (address, social media, plans, etc.) need to be updated, please submit a support ticket by clicking on the green Support button on the right side of the page.
When ER Assist sets up a new agency with Damage Assessment module, we also grant access to USERS, FILES and EQUIPMENT. Software Admins may choose to give users FILES and EQUIPMENT if they feel you will need it.
Landing Page/Home Page for Government Agency Contractors:
The landing page for contractors will display all of the government agencies for which you have access.
Each government agency/client will have a dashboard.
If one of your clients/government agencies is not visible, contact your contractor software admin, or the appropriate government agency software admin.
The activated/authorized software modules for each agency can be reached on the left hand bar under each agency by clicking the agency name, or by clicking the center tiles on the dashboard which will also trigger the modules to appear.
5. Select Damage Assessments Module:
Under the Government Agency for which you are working, select Damage Assessments from the menu on the left side of the page.
6. Select an Active Event or Create a New Event
Active (Existing) Events
Select “Event Home” to access the Active Event you’re looking for.
You can not add damage assessments to past (aka inactive) events. Software admins can make an event active or inactive.
Create New Event (software admins only)
Select New Event in the top right of the screen:
New Event Required fields:
Event Name
Event Date
Optional Fields
(those with admin access can go back and update event optional fields as the info becomes available):
Event Description
(Open text: not currently displayed anywhere within the system)
Disaster
Drop-down option; in most cases this field will not be available until after the damage assessments have been completed.
Make sure “Is Active” is checked and click “Save Event.”
7. Entering/Creating Site Damage Assessments (aka Report of Damage)
Select Damage Assessments
Choose Between Public (PA) or Private Property (IA) Damage
Public Infrastructure Damage (aka Public Assistance, PA) Assessments
Select “+ New Public Infrastructure and Non-Profit (PA) Damage Assessment”
Structure Info:
(one of two Required Fields for Public Infrastructure Reporting) - NOTE: additional structure types, if needed, may only be added by an ER Assist administrator.
Select Structure Type
Name/Title of Site
Location
Address, City and Zip - or you may add GPS. A valid street address will auto-populate the GPS coordinates.
GPS - If you add the GPS coordinates then the street address will auto-populate.
Damage Info:
1.Damage - Damage Level: Usually Applies to Homes and Businesses, and is not required for Public Infrastructure (It is optional, and may be useful especially when those doing the damage assessment may not be qualified to provide detailed damge description, repair info, or dollar estimate of the damage). Refer to FEMA Damage Assessment Operations Manual, pages 51-58 for descriptions of the different Damage Level
No Damage
Affected (cosmetic damage, outbuilding damage)
Minor (nonstructural damage to roof components over essential living space; nonstructural damage to interior wall components; multiple small vertical cracks in foundation; damage to chimney; damage or submersion of mechanical components; water line less than 18 inches deep in essential living space; OR damage to well or septic)
-
Major
(significant structural damage such as, failure or partial failure of structural elements such as rafters, joists, framing, sheathing, foundation, OR
water line above electrical outlets or 18 inches above floor in essential living space)
Destroyed (complete failure of 2 or more major structural components, or imminent threat of collapse because of confirmed imminent damage (like impending landslides, mudslides, or sinkholes)
2. Water Depth - In Inches (Optional)
3.Estimated Loss - Dollar Amount
4. Debris Info - Describe any Debris on the property (Optional)
Contact Info (if applicable):
1.Contact Name - Full name of the contact. This is the person providing information about this structure and does not necessarily occupy or own the structure.
2. Contact Email
3. Contact Phone
Responsible Public Agency/Owner (aka Applicant)
-Drop down of agencies within a county (available for county level users only).
Administrative Status
Internally selected status, with custom options determined by your agency.
Comments
Enter any additional Information, requests for reviews, etc.
To save the report: Click - Save, Save and Add Another, or Save and Close.
To close without saving: Click - Cancel
Private Property Damage Assessments:
Damage Assessments for Private Property/Business will likely be initially conducted one of two ways:
Field Assessments
(done via the mobile app).
Call Center
(done via the web app at your EOC, VOAD, 211; or if needed a staff augmentation service such as ER Assist help desk)
Damage - Damage Level: Applies to Homes and Businesses, Refer to the Help Box which has damage level descriptions linked from FEMA Damage Assessment Operations Manual, pages 51-58
No Damage
Affected (cosmetic damage, outbuilding damage)
Minor (nonstructural damage to roof components over essential living space; nonstructural damage to interior wall components; multiple small vertical cracks in foundation; damage to chimney; damage or submersion of mechanical components; water line less than 18 inches deep in essential living space; OR damage to well or septic)
-
Major
Significant structural damage such as failure or partial failure of structural elements such as rafters, joists, framing, sheathing, foundation, OR
Water line above electrical outlets or 18 inches above floor in essential living space
Destroyed (complete failure of 2 or more major structural components, or imminent threat of collapse because of confirmed imminent damage (like impending landslides, mudslides, or sinkholes)
Accessible/Inaccessible
Note: It is the count of Major and Destroyed that affect/support declaration requests. All major and destroyed homes/businesses should have supporting photos.
GRID VIEW : All Damage Assessments
All ER Assist software module grids have buttons in the top right.
The wheel/sprocket allows you to pick what fields you want to display in the grid. Under the “All Columns” section Click “Customize This View” to customize the fields you want displayed, simply turn the switch “On” or “Off”. You can save views (groupings of fields to be displayed) by typing in the “Save View As” field and clicking Save View.
***NOTE: ANY WORDS YOU HAVE TYPED INTO THE COLUMN FILTERS ON THE GRID WILL ALSO BE SAVED WHEN YOU SAVE A VIEW.
Individual Assessment Review/Verification
Each entry/assessment/site appears as a line entry in the grid.
Click on the line entry, and it opens an editable info page about that entry.
The site attributes provide a detailed overview of the site’s information. If any information needs to be added or adjusted, then select the “edit” icon at the top right of the tile.
Adding Photos
To add photos to the site, select Add Pictures on the tile to the far right of the page. All assessments with a major or destroyed designation need photos.
Select the file from your computer and Select either Save, Save and Add Another, or Cancel and Go Back.
Verifying Location (located in “Structure Info” section)
Verifying Location is meant to verify the physical location based on possible inconsistencies with GPS or possible unknown exact street address at the time of the assessment. It is not meant to verify the damage (which is usually the function of the status button). If damage is to private road/bridge or outbuilding only you can also move the location from the main structure to the damaged location.
When the location shows in a RED map with the verbiage “location not verified” it means it has not been administratively verified. Click on the location tile to review the location on the map and ensure the correct GPS or Address has been entered.
If it is correct, select “Mark Verified”. If it is not correct, Edit the location by dragging the pin to the correct spot, click Mark as verified, then Save Changes.
Once the location has been verified, the tile will change from RED to GREEN, and will annotate the user that verified the location.
Recent Activity
The Recent Activity log tracks ALL the changes and meta-data associated with creating, reviewing and validating a damage report. All additions, edits and deletions are captured in this field. This allows administrators to track down exactly who worked on/touched each assessment.
You can filter the recent activity log based on the level of importance of the changes. This is mostly used so that you can filter for the highlights without being bogged down with every single change to the entry.
STATUS
You can create custom report statuses that best match your process.
Referrals:
You can document referrals to 211, VOAD, NGO, etc IF the volunteer group is in the erassist.com database. Additions to the database must currently be added by erassist.com admins (submit a support ticket by clicking on the green Support button on the right side of the page or send an email to support@erassist.com).
Google Streetview:
This will show the GPS location in Google Street View (if Street View is not yet available for this location, it will be Google Maps instead).
Zestimate:
This will populate the Zillow Zestimate for the IA structure if it is a home. In the damage dollar estimates, there is a very rough general set percentage for land and structure, and then a set percentage for each level of damage, which will default for each entry if a damage estimate is not entered on the assessment. Local assessor data is of course, more accurate, and we can load that info if you have it, but Zestimate is a way to get general info quickly.
REPORTING
Reports and data can be downloaded to a spreadsheet from the Grid by clicking the Download Grid Data button on the top right of the page.
GRID DATA
You can select which data you want included in the download by clicking the wheel/sprocket button and selecting the fields you want displayed. (See GRID VIEW section above for instructions).
DETAILED REPORT
The Detailed Report will download a printable “look-book” with a detailed page for each damage assessment entry.
HELP
Help/support section with common questions on https://erassist.freshdesk.com/support/solutions
2. Contact one of your Agency’s ER Assist software admin
If you need assistance, please contact your agencies ER Assist Software Admin.
3. Send software performance issues or bugs to support@erassist.com
4. Software Admins
Software Admins may contact the ER Assist Help Desk at no charge at: support@erassist.com or (855) 336-2337.
5. Staff Augmentation Help
There is no charge for software maintenance, bugs, or software issues. There will be a hourly service fee for staff augmentation services such as qa/qc of data entered, cost estimates, or photo verification.