Precisely.
Everybody in hurricanes states knows that for the first 48 hours you're on your own.
Until the locals assess the situation and communicate their needs, any FEMA response is purely guesswork and is likely to be exactly what they don't need.
I'm holding off judgement on Brown and FEMA until we can untangle the web of interactions between Blanco's office and FEMA and the military. If Brown did screw up or fail to plan adequately, I'll call for his head at that point - but it's waaay to early to judge, especially with the Dems circling like vultures over FEMA while circling the wagons around Blanco.
I don't know enough about the laws in question regarding the feds taking over disaster response in a state - but I do know that the governor basically has sovereign authority over disaster matters in her state and has to cede authority to the feds. And, given how corrupt Louisiana is, methinks Blanco ran everything past both state lawyers and the state political machine before cedeing any powers that might affect the flow of graft and corruption or open up the state to federal investigative powers (recall Nagin's statement that she wanted 24 hours to review Bush's proposals - while people were dying).
We'll have to see how this plays out, but the Dems are already working overtime to downplay state and local problems - Hillary was on TV today calling for a Katrina Commission that only examines the federal response - for the dubious reason that the feds declared a federal emergency before landfall and were therefore somehow responsible for everything that subsequently happened.
And Mayor Nagin better watch his back - since he has publicly ripped into the governor, he will be a prime candidate for fall guy. He'll deserve a lot of it, but the Dem machine will try to dump as much blame on him as possible while attempting to glaze everyone else with the legal minutae of disaster response.