I detect the off-board whiff of politics. Short answer, you need to look up "posse comitatus" to understand the transition of authority in these situations. But in functional response, I would remind you:
1. President Bush declared a 'State of Emergency' for Louisiana on August 27, two days before the hurricane hit New Orleans. This allowed for federal aid to be sent to Louisiana, as soon as State and Local authorities requested it.
2. At that same time, Bush requested the Louisiana Governor also declare a 'State of Emergency', and that the New Orleans Mayor order a Mandatory Evacuation. At that time, neither the Governor nor Mayor did this, although Mayor Nagin held a press conference to suggest a voluntary evacuation of New Orleans, which was largely ignored.
3. On August 28, the Governor of Louisiana ordered state disaster forces be made ready, but did not request federal aid or National Guard from outside the state. Mayor Nagin finally ordered a mandatory evacuation from New Orleans at 5 PM Sunday evening, just 13 and a half hours before the storm wave hit, and far less time than was necessary to get half a million people out of the city.
4. When the hurricane hit New Orleans, evacuation routes had not been secured by city, county, or state authorities, and so there were bottlenecks and jams caused from lack of control. No permission was granted to federal authorities to assist until WEDNESDAY, at which time Guard forces waiting at the border were finally able to move in, which required clearing hundreds of miles of debris and wreckage in order to get to New Orleans.
It's amazing how many people believe that a disaster of this scale could be magically fixed by the presumed superhero-powers of a few individuals, but in fact this is a case where the response has been textbook, and the mistakes made by local and state authorities a sad fact in the timeline of this storm.
