What's that sound? Oh, yeah - no one complaining about the fed response to Irene.
Obama cuts his vacation short, monitors the situation constantly, and FEMA gets universal praise from local officials all along the east coast for their readiness & responsiveness.
That's how it's done...
It's always a bit easier when the hurricane is downgraded before it hits... But yeah. FEMA did a fine job making everybody run away real fast. If it actually was a hurricane, and it was massively damaging, my bet is they would have had a better response than Bush's response to Katrina.