My metric for the response to eastern-seaboard-of-North-America disasters is "How long does it take for the US government to get the hospital ship USNS Comfort to the scene"?
Of the top of my head, I seem to recall that took the Comfort five days to sail from Baltimore to post-Katrina New Orleans (post-Katrina).
This week, it took the Comfort four days to cast off, and it isn't expected to arrive in Haiti until Wednesday, Jan. 20th: call it eight days, maybe 8.5 days.
In September 2001, the Comfort cast off in about 30 hours, and "arrived at Pier 92 in Manhattan at about 8:30 p.m. September 14." (Wiki) Call it 3.5 days, but over a significantly shorter distance.
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Of the top of my head, I seem to recall that took the Comfort five days to sail from Baltimore to post-Katrina New Orleans (post-Katrina).
(This page - http://www3.ausa.org/webpub/depthome.nsf/byid/cton-6fuplu - implies seven days, counting from August 31, 2005.)
This week, it took the Comfort four days to cast off, and it isn't expected to arrive in Haiti until Wednesday, Jan. 20th: call it eight days, maybe 8.5 days.
In September 2001, the Comfort cast off in about 30 hours, and "arrived at Pier 92 in Manhattan at about 8:30 p.m. September 14." (Wiki)
Call it 3.5 days, but over a significantly shorter distance.