Thanks for the correction, you are right.
What I meant was, after the collapse of local authority, was any successor ever appointed to the head of N.O. EMS or whoever the "designated" incident command was.
That's an interesting question. Normally, when disaster management works like it should, disaster management/incident command is transparent. "The public" wouldn't even notice the disaster mangement/incident command in place, all they would see is that the disaster is being managed. On 9/11 I didn't see or read anything about the disaster management/incident command structure in use there - it was working and working well. It's when there is a management/command breakdown or maybe no management/plan in place "the public" notices. I can hardly believe the mayor's comments "if" "they" give authority to "me". I don't know what he is thinking; The authority, by default, already belongs to him and whatever disaster management team he has in place.
Oh well it's is just another symptom of a society that expects to be spoon fed everything.