Here's a find from the DHS website that states the federal government should provide a "Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events". Yes, that's right,
proactive. Not "Federal Response to Catastrophic Events Pending the Governor of the Affected State Asking Us Nicely".
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0569.xml
Key excerpts below the fold:
Emphasis on Local Response
All incidents are handled at the lowest possible organizational and jurisdictional level. Police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel are responsible for incident management at the local level. For those events that rise to the level of an Incident of National Significance, the Department of Homeland Security provides operational and/or resource coordination for Federal support to on-scene incident command structures.
Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events
The National Response Plan provides mechanisms for expedited and proactive Federal support to ensure critical life-saving assistance and incident containment capabilities are in place to respond quickly and efficiently to catastrophic incidents. These are high-impact, low-probability incidents, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks that result in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions.
I would bold the significant sentences, but just about every sentence is significant, and damning.
I can't wait to hear the GOP spin that this was not an "Incident of National Significance".