How was Bush to order that when he didn't have the federal authority to do so? For a full week ahead of time, a Cat-5 hurricane was predicted for New Orleans. The local and state governments of Louisiana were told to start the emergency procedures, yet they refused. Bush was personally calling for those procedures to be implemented, but Nagin and Blanco refused.
Regarding the charges against Bush that he waited too long to fly down there, the day before he came that storm was still classified as a hurricane. That was going to be a logistics/security nightmare to put him on the ground in New Orleans the day after landfall was made.
However, when Bush did finally travel down there and land, he had Blanco on Air Force One demanding that she cede powers to the Feds so that FEMA could get in there. She again refused. Blanco had a mental breakdown on that jet, and the joint statements for the press had to be delayed due to her makeup being smeared from the tears.
Blanco could have deployed the National Guard ahead of time, but she refused. That's another area the press/liberals blamed on Bush, yet would have called for impeachment hearings if he would have illegally ordered the Guard down there.
I am not saying the feds didn't do things perfectly, but they had their hands tied until Blanco and company gave them the permission to do anything.
Blanco and Nagin are fortunate that the hurricane missed New Orleans for the most part. Mississippi wasn't as fortunate.
I never said Bush should have been in New Orleans on Monday. However, it would have helped if he had been in say Hattiesburg or Jackson as it came in.
New Orleans is not the end all be all of Katrina. New Orleans became a disaster solely because the levees broke.
I’m referring to the fact that this was the first storm in a long time that I can remember where they didn’t have aid stations up the day after.