Under the reorganized Department of Homeland Security, the responsibility for first response in the immedate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina fell not to former FEMA chief Michael Brown, but to Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff.

So, what happened during those critical first 36 hours?

As we all know by now, Brown wrote a memo to Chertoff asking for him to authorize FEMA to begin relief efforts. Now we know why: Brown didn’t have the authority to do so himself.

Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the “principal federal official” in charge of the storm.

As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina’s early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.

But Chertoff – not Brown – was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government’s blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.

But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn’t shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department. — Knight-Ridder News Service

We all know what Bush was doing. He was in San Diego. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, ordered electrical workers to stop trying to restore power to hospitals in Mississippi, and instead, to restore power to an oil pipeline that was downed due to lack of power.

Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney’s office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.

Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Mike Callahan said the U.S. Department of Energy called him on Aug. 31. Callahan said department officials said opening the fuel line was a national priority. — Hattiesburg American

Stephen VanDyke points out that “if you want the federal government to rescue you out of your flooded house in your broke-ass neighborhood, you better hope the flooding is due to a nearby oil or gas pipeline rupturing.”

That’s not too far off the mark. Ronald Bailey of Reason Magazine argues that FEMA is actually making Americans less safe and less prepared for disasters. For instance, “The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) encourages people to live in harm’s way,” writes Bailey. In addition, the federal government has no business getting in the way of people who want to help. “If the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Baptist Missions or any other competent group want to take the risk of helping disaster victims, the government should not stand in their way.”

Especially since the Pentagon’s Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support (PDF) places such a low priority on disaster relief that it was impossible for the military to get resources into the area within 24 hours.

And Jeff Taylor analyzes why hundreds of New Orleans school buses were left to rot in floodwaters, coming to a conclusion that can only be startling to Republicans and Democrats: you don’t save what you don’t own. “Greyhound, after all, did not leave hundreds of its buses to be destroyed,” writes Taylor.

Indeed. Not only did private entities prove themselves much more capable of saving themselves in the disaster than the government’s capability of saving people, they also proved much more able to help. It’s my opinion right now that New Orleans should have let in Wal-Mart, the Red Cross, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Florida airboat pilots, and anybody else who wanted to come — at their own risk — and thrown out FEMA. You can be certain that many more lives would have been saved, and far fewer people would be in the Astrodome right now.

In some much-needed good news, the Port of New Orleans has reopened, and shipments into the country from that port have resumed, forestalling massive price increases in the cost of many consumer goods. The port is expected to be at 80% capacity within three months.

In some rare good news for those who evacuated, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Humane Society of the United States have rescued thousands of pets from New Orleans and surrounding areas. If your pet is missing, call 1-800-HUMANE-1 (1-800-486-2631).