re: Pretty much what I expected
"(b) "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;"
Seems pretty clear that the President could easily have ruled the 9/11 event as fitting this description, yet our country rebounded just fine without extraordinary measures being taken."
You don't count grounding all flights in America as extraordinary?