The critical paragraph

The critical paragraph in the entire long-winded article about the disarray of the federal response to Hurrican Katrina is that the federal plan post-9/11 advises local officials not to expect help for 72 to 96 hours.

Help from the federal government came 96 hours after President Bush declared a state of emergency. The local officials were advised to have plans to deal with the situation during the interim, which clearly they were not able to do.

I still think that the National Guard should have been able to enter the city before they did. However, as I'm no expert in the intricacies of the National Guard, I'm left wondering as to whether Governor Blanco had ordered the Guard to mobilize prior to the federal government.