This has led me on a quest to define what the difference between restoration and recovery actually is. What I'll share with you came out of a conversation I had with the City of Everett, WA Office of Emergency Management team (all two of them--Dave DeHaan and Joe Huden).
Restoration is about services. The goal is to "restore" services to their previous level of capability.
Recovery is about economic recovery, not about the FEMA type of recovery, IA and PA. You have recovered when the economy of the region is back its feet. And, this probably will not be to what existed before (if it truly is a big disaster) but to a new economic condition.
