I think a better solution is to organize FEMA in a military like fashion, perhaps under the Coast Guard. Clear chain of command, moblization processes, comms gear, etc. Personally, I would like to military to keeps it's full attention on those that wish to kill us.
Could you imagine the liberal caterwalling had we seen video coverage of a bunch of battle ready Marines descending upon NO and possibly shooting a US citizen in NO? The military is trained to kill enemy combatants, not hand out bottles of water after a hurricane. As good as the military is, a humanitarian relief operation could be built to be much more suitable to the task. It only need borrow the command and communication abilities from the military. Even the military equipment is built for killing.
NY handled 9-11. FL, SC, NC, AL, MS, and TX all handled hurricanes. OK handled tornado's, OH handled floods, OR and WA handled wildfires, MN handled blizzards, MO handled ice storms, and CA handled earthquakes.
We don't need to give the Federal government, FEMA, or the military any more authority over the States. We do need to assess what happened in LA and carry away the hard lesson that it does matter who the citizens elect to local positions. We also need to take that knowledge and act on it each and everytime we vote in local elections.
I am convinced that the Mayor and possibly the Governor would have screamed bloody murder if the Feds had shown up on day one. After all, "there is only one Mayor of New Orleans, and [he] is it."
Then the left would be having a heyday about separation of powers, and possibly even discover the principles of federalism for a day or two.