I would not have been impeached (not with Delay running things), and declaring martial law in a national emergency is on the books. Sure if I had known that the storm would suddenly deflect and degrade at the last moment, I would have just bitched slapped Blanco on TV, early and often. But I didn't know that. My best information is that the odds were high that NO would have been blown apart, and then anyone remaining alive, drowned, or most of them, and with that material risk, I would have just have done it, and accepted the consequences. Of course Bush didn't know that, because one of his flaws, is that he lacks a certain intellectual curiousity, and is not very good at moving fast, when fast is the only speed that is safe.
Martial Law isn't in any books. And what you or I would have done is not productive discussion I think. The question is what should be done to assure the situation does not recur and is it politically palatable enough for the left and right to actually do something worthwhile.