This is kind of off topic but I want to share it. Even disaster recovery requires people who know something about greasing wheels especially when you're dealing with something as big as the Federal government; I daresay a newbie Senator would not even know to try do this:

Schumer urges weather agency to keep Sandy labeled a tropical storm
By Zack Colman, The Hill blogs, 11/11/12 04:23 PM ET

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is urging the federal weather agency to avoid labeling Superstorm Sandy a hurricane because doing so would raise insurance deductibles.

Schumer sent a letter Sunday to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and insurance companies warning that classifying Sandy as a hurricane could boost deductibles to $20,000, compared to $1,000 for a tropical storm.

Schumer says insurers are seeking to have Sandy labeled a hurricane to cut their losses from the devastating natural disaster [.....]

The thing is, I'm not sure how I feel about this kind of thing.  This is regulated by the government, what insurers have to pay for the different categories of weather loss, so that they can stay in business and still find some profit in insuring people. This is like going around the system to get pork for your constituents, and taking away from others--in this case the others are the other homeowners across the country who will see their premiums rise if all those deductibles are erased. It's certainly a clever way to impose a tax to help Sandy victims that nobody will know they are paying.

And then there's the thing about both sides on this lobbying scientific purview for political and monetary reasons......

Edit to add: Chris Christie in NJ signed an executive order prohibiting insurance companies from imposing costly hurricane deductibles I thought I read somewhere that Cuomo did, too, so the Schumer lobbying of the NOAA is redundant or being extra careful, or maybe in order to avoid litigation by insurers against the states of NY and NJ?