Good points you bring up on those early calls for help.
Maybe more investigation is needed before knowing full story. Have you found any other related articles on it?
Still doesn't undo the fact Mayor of NO waited so late for evacuation orders. But would be interesting to get complete picture of what all the Louisiana officials were actually doing in those pre- and early-post hours.
Does sound like some cries of LA officials for help were slow getting an answer, according to those articles.
Here is a copy of the link to the request by the Governor of Louisiana to President Bush asking for major federal assistance for the approaching hurricane.
The letter/request is dated August 28, 2005.
Here's the link (pdf):
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf