>>Within 72 hours of the realization of the level of disaster on hand

This seems to be the key issue. There was a very odd interview on TV last night with (sorry I didn't recognize him) the head of either FEMA or Homeland Security; the gist of it was that "they were too busy to sit around watching TV and therefore didn't realize how serious the problem was until Thursday". The guy being interviewed did manage to say this with a straight face. Sure they knew about it earlier but they didn't know "factually" until late Thursday which is why the help arrived on Friday.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8