Petra-one thing I probably forgot to mention in previous post: funds for preparedness may come from completely different sources-maybe FEMA for federal, maybe state, maybe local. I don't know if the USGS-NEHRP program has a preparedness component (I think they may not-I could check but so can you, on http://erp-web.er.usgs.gov. But, even if they do solicit this sort of work, there is the whole process to go through (my guess is that they would not fund your kind of work)). They might be more likely to fund, for example, engineering research so buildings don't collapse (although, again, it is probably another agency that funds that....)
Chris