Putting it simply...
...it was too little too late.
Getting the President to sign a disaster declaration and calling for evacuations isn't particularly tough to accomplish. The hard part is planning and organizing the response. In a federally declared disaster, its the President's job to make certain the hard part gets done. He didn't. He was out playing golf.
We've seen this lack of adequate planning and organizing before...in Iraq. It was just as easy then for the President to issue an emotional call to arms. Its a lot harder to make certain were have enough in all the right places.