From MSNBC.com:

In announcing the public health emergency in Washington, Health Secretary Michael Leavitt said his agency is concerned about potential disease outbreaks and was sending medical experts to monitor conditions.

This has been my major concern. The immediate storm was horrific in its own right, but the longer-term impacts to public health have the capacity to turn an emergency into a long-term epidemic.

If you'd ever visited New Orleans before last week, you'd know all about the above-ground cemetaries and mausoleums. With all those corpses set free by the massive storm, the public health nightmare is complicated even further.

I'm glad a state of emergency has been declared, officially making it possible for FEMA to start providing services. I can't imagine why it took this long though.