Given some of what I've read in conservative blogs (who conveniently try to come up with reasons to not fault the federal response and ignore issues with it) the local response wasn't all that great either.

The New Orleans police participated in the looting. They didn't bother to try to help people stranded in hotels, and in fact left for the evening, leaving some of the people to decide to do their own patrols and arm themselves.

Also, the New Orleans mayor knew that their disaster planning was woefully inadequate. He and/or members of his administration also failed to make use of the resources of the city (such as busses) to evacuate people. Their instructions to the populace were wavering, and sometimes confusing.

So, there's plenty of blame to be handed around. :-(

It seems almost like the best thing to have done would've been to round up as many able bodied people as you could, fill up trucks with supplies, arm everybody, bring along some obvious members of the press and publicly threaten to start a minor war with the national guard if they didn't let you in to help people and haul them out.

And that's just very sad. :-(