The devastation wrought across the American Southeast by Category 4 Hurricane Helene last week has naturally drawn comparisons to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina response. As a veteran of military logistics, I can confirm that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ response to this round of mass suffering has been orders of magnitude worse than federal actions taken after Katrina.

In August of 2005, I was a U.S. Army colonel serving on the Army staff in the Pentagon. Before Hurricane Katrina was even nearing landfall, I was detailed as a shift officer in the National Military Command Center (NMCC) for hurricane support operations. As a career logistics officer, this was the culmination of a noncombat mission I had been associated with since I was first commissioned: disaster relief and humanitarian support operations.

From the Yellowstone fires in 1988 while I was a mere first lieutenant, through Hurricane Fran while I was serving on Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) as a major in the 82nd Airborne Division, through the humanitarian missions the support battalion of the 82nd I commanded in Afghanistan accomplished, and through the many training events and “orders drills” I endured in this arena, this secondary mission of all logisticians was something that defined a substantial part of my military career. As such, I was privileged to be a part of the national support to Katrina.

Despite the misleading media reports of failure, as I served in the NMCC I was enthralled and impressed with the sheer power that was brought to bear by our military to support endangered Americans in Katrina. Nothing feels better than making a difference for your fellow Americans, and as such I (now a long-retired veteran) paid careful attention to Hurricane Helene, anticipating the same robust military and federal support. As you can imagine, I have been grossly disappointed with the delayed and inept nature of the federal response.