I agree it is all the individuals and little things that make it work. But having lived in Houston 4 times, the local government led actions during Katrina was something to be proud of; Democratic Mayor Bill White (UT) reaching out to Republican Gov. Perry (A&M) for State & Federal resources (days away), and supplementing that with the more immediate local resources, HEB & Mattress Mack, etc.
Before Rita, I flew home to IAH and didn't have enough fuel to make it to Katy, and Houston was out of gas, so I parked in a Best Buy parking lot and called my wife to come get me. A wrecker pulled up and the driver offered to sell me some gas, for $50/gallon (he was kidding, he didn't have any). I needed diesel. He told me of a station 2 miles away that was out of gasoline, but still had diesel. No charge, just asked that I keep it to myself. So sad to see so many who evacuated, only to be stranded at a gas station.
After Ike, I got the kids situated, and loaded up my chain saw and tools and took off to help clear the downed trees in Katy. I was very disappointed to see that so many individuals had already beat me to it and had cleared most of the downed limbs in the streets. Later, I took my kids to find volunteer opportunities at multiple food/supply aggregation points, and each time was told to leave a phone number and they would call, as they were already fully staffed for their needs.
Houston Works. From the top of the food chain to the bottom, people get things done. Help where you can.
Yes, similarly, replacing a transformer is fairly straight forward. However, checking all the upstream and downstream connections before you energize the circuits is a labor intensive and tedious task (Why did it blow in the first place?). Our job is never so important that we cannot take the time to do it safely ...
Best wishes for a timely recovery for all affected.
Well, considering that in less than 48 hours (~mobilization to deployment to arrival time), the projected landfall changed from a tropical storm in the most desolate place on the Gulf Coast to a hurricane hitting the biggest city, 400 miles away, I'm not sure you can fairly lay that blame on anybody.