Data Doc

library(dplyr)

Question (Impact): Is there an emerging pattern of increasing lack of federal coordination for disaster response?

Other questions I have from my interview w/ Prof. S: Are disasters declared/funding provided for faster in swing states than in solid red/blue states? Has the time from incident to declaration changed under different administrations?

Data Sets: Disaster Declarations Summaries v2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YhwtLE-e428HYR-CLruthPc3VHoWb2cg/view?usp=sharing

Public Assistance Funded Projects Details - v2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pq2dTonvVWdUOajeB8kg4TZMUe2lgpjC/view?usp=sharing

County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2024 - MIT Election Lab https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MMnjExnm5B7bRhn7j6Oe24qvfpsEPVsv/view?usp=sharing

Proposed Methodology

Looking at incident date v.s. declaration dates for hurricanes, specifically Hurricane Helene (this is unique in the sense that the disaster was declared during the Biden administration, but funding dispersed under Trump). Then, the process could be replicated to compare for other administrations (I’m not sure how far back would be necessary to go – the database goes back to the Eisenhower Administration). Will also need to do some research as to hazards that may have stalled FEMA’s ability to declare disasters/get public funding to repair damages/clear debris. Similar storms to Hurricane Helene in terms of storm behavior are Hurricane Camille (1969), Hurricane Floyd (1999), Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne (2004), Hurricane Harvey (2017), Hurricane Ida (2021) and Hurricane Matthew (2016). That’s just off some surface-level research as far as rapid intensification and comparable amounts of rainfall/flooding.

With the public funding assistance dataset, the following variables seem to have potential for analysis:

firstObligationDate - Date the grant was initially obligated

lastObligationDate - Date the grant was last obligated

projectAmount - The estimated total cost of the Public Assistance grant project in dollars, without administrative costs. This amount is based on the damage survey.

projectStatus - An active or inactive status of the project

federalShareObligated - The Public Assistance grant funding available to the grantee (State) in dollars, for sub-grantee’s approved Project Worksheets

totalObligated - The federal share of the Public Assistance grant eligible project amount in dollars, plus grantee (State) and sub-grantee (applicant) administrative costs. The federal share is typically 75% of the total cost of the project

Since declarations are by county, could look at the political makeup of those counties/states more broadly. Helene most affected NC, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Were some declarations “faster” than others or received more public funding? This might be hard to answer because of the nuance of one county having more damage than others, so would have to find counties comparable in damage with different political makeups to assess this reliably?