On the one hand, states usually are grateful for federal assistance after a disaster, but dealing with the recovery for a decade or so is frustrating. See: Paperwork, rules and toads slow down disaster recovery .

Texas has more major disaster declarations than any other state in the nation; thirty two statewide disasters since 1998, including three just this year.

But awarding grants needed to rebuild after those disasters can sometimes take more than a decade. Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations met to discuss speeding up a process bogged down by paperwork, rules and an endangered species.

From the state of Kansas, a review of recent disaster and damage numbers and their meaning.  See: Disaster, damage numbers rise, but it isn’t clear whether Kansas is less safe. Many factors influence data. Some excerpts from the article:

The numbers appear to show Kansas is seeing more disasters and that weather is doing more damage, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your life or property are in greater danger.

More disasters were declared in Kansas from 2004 to 2013 than in the 50 years before, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Averages of weather-related damage, including non-disaster events, also showed an upward trend over time.

From a writer in the NYTimes: Boston’s Winter from Hell.  Here are two excerpts:

But for those of us living here, it’s not a pretty picture. We are being devastated by a slow-motion natural disaster of historic proportions. The disaster is eerily quiet. There are no floating bodies or vistas of destroyed homes. But there’s no denying that this is a catastrophe.

Where are the federal disaster funds, the presidential visit, Anderson Cooper interviewing victims, volunteers flying in, goods and services donated after hurricanes and tornadoes? The pictures may be pretty. But we need help, now.