Last I was a aware, the President of the United States can activate National Guard units. However, the idea with disasters is the lowest political subdivision handles the emergency. If they cannot handle it, the next highest takes the load. If they cannot, it repeats until it hits FEMA.

A lot of changes need to be made, and until every politician realizes that disaster response ( just like military actions ) is not an area that politics should be involved in the decision making. Let the people who know what to do, do what they need to do.

Again, everyone needs to look to Florida for how to handle hurricanes. When I saw the response ( on the news, didn't get a lot of the small details ) to Gustav and Ike, I saw a lot of the things Florida did. Well, except those expensive pre-storm airlifts of people that just don't know how to follow instructions. The big thing that worries me about that is they haven't learned to be self-sufficient. The government came and saved their ass. A lot of people are going to have to die for failing to evacuate before people get the message.