It would be of interest if an exact accounting could be done of federal expenditures on NYC for post 9/11/01 response and recovery and a comparison after just six (6) years for Post-Katrina response and recovery. Casualties of course were over double in NYC. No measure there. Some deaths [about 167]at the Pentagon on that day.
The stories and articles and books about this first decade are multiplying day by day and of course what might be of interest is new information that they contain on events leading up to, during, and after 9/11/01 concerning the federal response.
What some may have forgotten is the SNIPER attacks in the fall of 2001 and the Anthrax attacks.
Would you be surprised to find out that health preparedness funding post the Anthrax attacks exceeds the STATE and their local governments preparedness funding by various FEMA grants [$2.1B just announced for this year]that are now estimated to be about $31B with little known of the end result of those grants in enhancing preparedness.
A recent article noted that California had purchased over 40 large screen TVs for emergency preparedness and homeland security that somehow disappeared into Californian organizations unrelated to the purposes for which the grants made.
My estimate is about $45B has gone out to STATES and their local governments for health preparedness but that result also questionable as budget reductions continue to impact staff and capability built in the STATES and Their local governments since the Anthrax attacks and enactment of the May 2002 law enhancing health preparedness.
And noting for the record a new leader for FEMA's REP activity and the North ANNA reactors in Virginia still in off status since the earthquake nearby.
Tropical Storm Lee has so far been less intense than predicted but has dropped about 10 inches of rain across the mid-southland with more to follow.
