The August 27 Katrina emergency declaration

Posted at my newsrack blog:

Was the declaration in fact in error? A check of other emergency and disaster declarations archived at FEMA suggests it was. First, both subsequent hurricane emergency declarations, for Hurricanes Ophelia and Rita, did not make the same mistake of excluding precisely those counties or parishes which were the likeliest sites of these hurricanes' landfalls. [...]

Second, it seems significant that the August 27 declaration was the first hurricane emergency declaration since 1999 -- and therefore the first since FEMA's absorption into the newly formed Department of Homeland Security in 2002.

Finally, as mentioned above, the final September 4 revision of the Katrina emergency declaration all but reversed the one made on August 27.