Martini Republic - Timeline of Brown foot-dragging and decision making.: "As Joseph notes below, the response of FEMA chief Brown was less-than-energized when he requested the dispatch of emergency workers only after waiting some 5 hours from the time Katrina hit and devastated the Gulf Coast on August 29.

Two days earlier, on August 27, Governor Blanco, who has become one of the rightwing's favored scapegoats for the slow and inadequate response by FEMA, requested that Bush declare a national emergency.  In her request, Blanco stated:

Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing. The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting the thousands of citizens evacuating from the areas expecting to be flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina."

(Via Martini Republic.)