How soon were supplies available?

In another mind boggling detail from the hurricane relief effort, the Red Cross was denied entrance to New Orleans last week. Now it wasn't as horrendous of a blunder as I originally thought because it turns out the Red Cross didn't make their request until Thursday, 3 full days after the hurricane passed, but it's still really stupid. Here's one of many places with the story. The Guard started moving supplies in on Wednesday, Aug. 31st, though as we know now those supplies were late and woefully inadequate, entirely missing many people including thousands at the convention center, who got no food, water, or security until late Thursday afternoon following riots, beatings, murders and rapes there. On Thursday the Red Cross requested to enter the city. Apparently they got no response and asked again on Friday. On Friday it was recommended they wait another 24 hours for logistics reasons. By Saturday it was a mute point as the large scale evacuation was in full swing and the National Guard had a lot more supplies in the city.

Okay, so I basically summarized that story, but honestly, does an incredibly experienced organization like the Red Cross really need to be put off for 2 days to wait for "logistics" to be arranged so they can go in safely? The Red Cross operates in war zones. I think they could handle starting to move some people in as soon as they had supplies there. Food, shelter, and medical attention is what they do and they're very good at it. Why the hell didn't the government let them do it when it might have mattered?

The greater failing though is that even the National Guard didn't even start moving supplies in until Wednesday and the Red Cross wasn't ready until Thursday. The government should have had FEMA personnel and Guardsmen ready to go in with supplies immediately, not 2 full days after the hurricane.

Also, I'd like to find a source to link, but I'm hearing that the Superdome could have been stocked with food and water before the hurricane struck, but wasn't because the mayor feared it would encourage people to stay in the city. It seems evacuation plans for the city were piss poor too. You'd think with a city that they knew for years couldn't withstand a direct hit from a powerful hurricane that there would be a very detailed and well thought of plan for evacuating.

Naturally there's a lot more to this story. It's looking like Mayor Nagin, the Louisiana governor, and FEMA director Brown among others seriously fucked up regarding hurricane preparation and their response.