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The money market guarantee program was initiated on Thursday, September 18, 2008, thus that was the morning of the meltdown.

From your article...the "money shot", if you will, which comes right after your snippet ends...

The temporary guarantee program provides coverage to shareholders for amounts that they held in participating money market funds as of the close of business on September 19, 2008. The guarantee will be triggered if a participating fund's net asset value falls below $0.995, commonly referred to as breaking the buck.

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To participate in the program, the Treasury Department will require money market funds with a net asset value per share greater than or equal to $0.9975 as of the close of business on September 19, 2008, to pay an upfront fee of 0.01 percent, 1 basis point, based on the number of shares outstanding on that date. Funds with net asset value per share of greater than or equal to $0.995 and below $0.9975 as of the close of business on September 19, 2008, will be required to pay an upfront fee of 0.015 percent, 1.5 basis points, based on the number of shares outstanding on that date. These fees will only cover the first three months of participation in the program.
Funds with a net asset value below $0.995 as of the close of business on September 19, 2008, may not participate in the program.

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While the program protects the accounts of investors, each money market fund makes the decision to sign-up for the program. Investors cannot sign-up for the program using the forms on the program webpage: http://www.treas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/key-initiatives/money-market-fund.shtml.

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President George W. Bush approved the use of existing authorities by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. to make available as necessary the assets of the Exchange Stabilization Fund to guarantee the payment
The Exchange Stabilization Fund was established by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, as amended, and has approximately $50 billion in assets. This Act authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, "to deal in gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities" consistent with the obligations of the U.S. government in the International Monetary Fund to promote international financial stability.

I'll just put my 2 cents in on the money market comments. I have an online broker account that pays me interest on my money while not invested in stocks. It was paying about 3-4% for most of the Bush term. Then, out of the blue, they moved our money to a cash account that pays almost nothing. When I complained about it, they explained that the realestate mess was endangering Money Market funds. I had no idea that Money Markets are almost 100% in real estate backed instruments. About a month and a half later, the run on the banks. Thank God, they got me out. I heard stories of people asking for their money and they got IOU’s. It was in the fine print of my trustee agreement where I found the names of the banks and instruments the Money Market was invested in. About 70% was backed by real estate CMO’s. Other names were bank bonds that had trouble with real estate securities. That was when I started to realize just how serious the problem was, when AAA bonds were worthless.