“At the end of the day, it’s my job and the parish president’s job to look out for what’s best for residents of St. Charles Parish,” said Scott Whelchel, the director of emergency preparedness for a parish that lies on the southwestern banks of Lake Pontchartrain. “The simple fact is, I wasn’t elected to take care of BP’s equipment.”

The unified area command plan calls for BP and the Coast Guard to evacuate people and equipment from the well site as many as 120 hours before a hurricane, and from the ground about 70 hours before the storm.

Already, a drill rig that was working on a relief well, which is considered the ultimate way to seal the well, has begun to disconnect to leave the area.

Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who leads the federal response effort, said on Friday that a seismic monitoring ship and the ships operating undersea robots near the well would remain as long as possible.

But if they are forced to evacuate, aerial and satellite reconnaissance would be used to keep track of the shut-in well.

So far, for this storm, the evacuations of coastal residents have been minimal.

On Thursday, Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency, and several coastal parishes followed. Plaquemines Parish called for a voluntary evacuation of its residents near the coast on Friday, even as the Coast Guard and BP started moving personnel and equipment to higher ground from a site in Venice.

Rear Adm. Paul F. Zukunft of the Coast Guard, who is the federal on-scene coordinator, said he understood the frustration in the parishes.