Fears that the fanfare surrounding the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama could reach disastrous proportions have led Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty to request—and President George Bush to declare—a preemptive state of emergency for the January 20 event.
The advance declaration frees up federal funds for protecting public health and safety beyond the $15 million in emergency planning and security funds Congress allocated for the event. It also authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to participate.
The District of Columbia estimates between 1.5 million and 2 million visitors will attend the festivities from January 17 to 21, at a cost to the District of around $47 million, according to a Washington Post article. Virginia and Maryland have requested $16 million and $12 million in federal funding respectively, but hadn’t received a response as of Wednesday.
The declaration marks the first time the swearing in of a president has been declared an emergency, as well as the first advance emergency declaration of a planned event, according to Whitehouse Spokesman Scott Stanzel, quoted in the Post and the New York Times.
Jolie Breeden is the lead editor and science communicator for Natural Hazards Center publications. She writes and edits for Research Counts; the Quick Response, Mitigation Matters, Public Health, and Weather Ready Research Award report series; as well as for special projects and publications. Breeden graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.