You and I seem to have grasped the concept (we aren't alone on FR, anyway) of the Principle of Subsidiarity.
The FIRST RESPONSE must come from the local Gummint--then the State--and finally, the Feds.
But unless the local and state folks have operable plans and some idea of what's going on, there's no way the Feds can be too helpful.
I saw a FEMA guy in an interview yesterday and he said that FEMA was there to ASSIST the local and state government, they are not 'in charge'. They coordinate with the officials and go where they tell them they are needed and distribute things where they say they should go. He said in all his years he had never seen this much manpower, equipment and supplies on the ground. He did not outright say it, but he implied that the local and state officials were not communicating to them what they needed and wanted them to do. He seemed pretty ticked at the suggestion that not enough were supplies there and that FEMA was not doing it's job.