President Obama visited the Red Cross today and delivered an address on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the coordination efforts between federal, state, and local governments.
A key quote:
Earlier today I had a conversation with the governors and many of the mayors in the affected areas including Governor Christie, Governor Cuomo, and Mayor Bloomberg. I want to praise them for the extraordinary work that they have done. Sadly, we are getting more experience with these kinds of big impact storms along the east coast and the preparation shows. Were it not for the outstanding work that they and their teams have already done and will continue to do in the affected regions we could have seen more deaths and more property damage. They have done extraordinary work working around the clock. The coordination between the state, local, and federal governments has been outstanding.
Sandy was the second major storm to hit the east coast in two years and the northeast now seems to be just as likely to be hit by a major hurricane as the gulf coast because of rising water temperatures and changing weather patterns. As the president said the good, if not tragic, news is that we're now more prepared.
On the disaster timeline, we're still four days away from the when FEMA finally arrived at the Superdome in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.