More of the “I Told You So” or “We Warned You” dept.: Jersey Shore Development Failures Exposed By Hurricane Sandy
When you are dealing with recovery issues in the northeast, most of the community development has occured over many decades and in some cases settlement patterns began centuries ago. It is not a simple matter to make major changes or to
begin to pay attention to resilience and sustainable development.
On Dec. 13th, the HS Newswire featured this story on the aging instrastructure whose weakness were uncovered after the super storm: One more example of the weaknesses of our aging infrastructure and they the problems are uncovered by a disaster. Sandy exposes weaknesses of antiquated sewage systems in N.Y., N.J.
Published 13 December 2012
Hurricane Sandy destroyed homes, apartments, and entire communities, and it also exposed the outdated sewage systems in New York and New Jersey; since Hurricane Sandy, millions of gallons of raw sewage have infiltrated waterways in both states, and it could take several years and billions of dollars to fix the systems; New York governor Andrew Cuomo estimated that it will cost about $1.1 billion to repair treatment plants; officials in the field say that much more will have to be done. Raw sewage overflow flooded much of New York and New Jersey coastal areas //
Recovery Diva 
I expect members of Congress from NY and NJ will be exerting a lot of pressure for major funding for recovery projects. How will that square with the deficit reduction plans?
There is documented research by the Federal Reserve that shows where FEMA funds were distributed based on political gain rather than documented need or damage.
This is nothing new. When a president needs a vote on an issue before a critical committee, a senator on that committee will get greater funding than someone else.