I live in North Carolina and wasn't to hard hit by Floyd, but I can tell you we didn't see FEMA or other people for several days. The flooding went on for days and days almost no effort to stop it. People relied on themselves and the help of local groups to get by. Same way with Hurricane Fran in 1996 which was very bad had power out for 10 days and days before we saw in FEMA help. Back to Floyd, much of the state was cut off because of flooding, Hwy 70 and I40 were shut down for several days because of flooding and damage keeping many people trapped from their home. In my home town, I went to check on my office after which is normally a 8-10 block drive, it took almost an hour because of trying to find a way around flood waters.
In New Jersey, Floyd was nothing more than a police/fire/EMS overtime racket. The towns that were flooded out in its path needed a lot of help from neighboring towns and from state emergency officials (including the state police), and that need for help magically disappeared once FEMA stopped paying for all the overtime.
Sorry, you must be remembering wrong! Clinton appointee Witt was in charge -- everything went like clockwork! Hillary even said so. ;-)
Howie Carr read this on his show. If it hadn't been posted, I'd have had to.