Biden-Harris’ Helene Response Has Been Way Worse Than Katrina

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.

Why did this happen? Why did our military — the actual “muscle” of federal disaster response, as FEMA is a mere coordinating staff agency — sit largely on the sidelines for Helene? 

I want to know. I suppose you do too.

Katrina vs. Helene

Helene and Katrina are roughly comparable disasters even though Katrina hit the urban setting of New Orleans (population: ~ 455,000), whereas Helene was across a region with only one major population center (Asheville, population ~94,000). In Katrina, 2 million people lost enduring power; in Helene, that number was closer to 1.5 million. Yes, New Orleans is on the ocean, and the worst impact of Helene was largely concentrated in mountain hollows, but I would argue that this makes support to Helene victims harder than support after Katrina.

Much has been made in the media that on Oct. 2, about a week after Helene made landfall, President Joe Biden authorized 1,000 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division to support Helene relief operations, but let’s contrast that with Katrina support, shall we?

First, let’s be clear: In both disasters, state National Guard units performed valiantly under the command and control of their state governors. However, the problems with National Guard units in a given state are twofold. First, state National Guard units often lack the full spectrum of combat, combat support, and combat service support units found in the active component on bases so very close to the Helene disaster like Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Liberty and Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, and Fort Stewart in Georgia. Second, state National Guard units often have their armories and the homes of their members right in the path of the disaster, making it hard to provide fulsome support.

As such, deploying active military units — especially in a region with such robust active military capabilities as America’s Southeast — is essential to disaster relief operations.

Let’s compare Katrina with Helene. In Katrina, a three-star general was placed in command, along with the two-star commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, with a full Airborne Infantry Brigade task force of the 82nd, a corps-support logistics command of thousands of soldiers, a signal battalion, a combat support hospital, robust Army engineer assets, and countless other support units. All of these units were on standby orders days before Katrina hit.

In contrast, a week after Helene hit, a tiny 1,000-troop Airborne Infantry Battalion task force of the 82nd (one-third the size of a brigade) was given a warning order under the ground command of a mere one-star general. These forces are without the medical, engineer, corps-level logistics, signal/communications, and Division/Army HQ command and control capabilities that defined Katrina support.

How about the Marines? In Katrina, they sent 2,600 Marines, under the command of a two-star Marine Division commanding general. For Helene, near as I can tell after extensive web research and quizzing my followers on X, the USMC has not been tasked to send a single damned Marine.

The Navy is probably not a fair comparison since New Orleans is an ocean port and the mountains of North Carolina are not, but after Katrina, the Navy sent a carrier task force and a hospital ship, along with 63 aircraft. For Helene, the Navy has sent 10 helicopters.

Coast Guard? Yes, they are a blue-water force, but they have riverine capabilities that would make a huge difference in the hills of North Carolina. In 2005, they sent 43 aircraft that conducted search and rescue operations almost immediately after Katrina made landfall. In Helene, the Coast Guard disestablished its area command, but it did find time to help a handful a people and rescue five pets.

The Air Force’s airlift capabilities are largely strategic, but in Katrina, they were busy evacuating thousands of injured and displaced people. After Helene, it seems they are mostly busy repairing their own airfields and not much else. This is curious, seeing as their C-130s could be working closely with the parachute riggers on Fort Liberty to prepare essential supplies for airdrop. Guess not.

The folks trapped in the hollows of North Carolina’s mountains need helicopter support most of all, to receive essential food, water, and construction and medical supplies, and to evacuate the stranded, the elderly, the sick, and the injured. If you review the links I included above, you’ll see that hundreds of active-duty helicopters were involved in Katrina. As for Helene, if you look at the DOD’s press releases, it looks like 28 active-duty helicopters are thinking about maybe getting involved as of Sept. 30. 

Why So Bad?

The Biden-Harris administration’s federal response to Helen has been horrific, if not criminal, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why it’s been so bad. Creating a list of every possible explanation, no matter how remote, I pressure-tested this list with my followers on X, many of whom are active duty, reserves, National Guard, or retired military. With that in mind, here is the full, curated list (in no particular order) of all possible reasons why active-duty military forces have not yet been deployed en masse to disaster relief in North Carolina:

1. The Biden-Harris administration is grossly incompetent, in terms of not prestaging assets and not cutting through red tape to get the assets moving.

One of the criticisms I have received from Harris supporters on X is that “North Carolina’s governor has not requested federal military support, so there is nothing Biden or Harris can do.” While this is a technically accurate explanation of the Stafford Act, I consider this argument utter B.S. Any competent president could pressure any governor to accept federal support. What governor wants the president bad-mouthing him or her on national television? Biden’s failure to get this “request” quickly is sheer incompetence.

2. Units based in the southeastern U.S. — like the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), the 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Airborne Corps, and the 2nd Marine Division — are currently under classified deployment or standby orders to deploy to Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Taiwan, or some other world hotspot, and they therefore cannot spare their units at this moment in time.

This one scares me because it may be true. Additionally, the 101st, the 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, and the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command out of Fort Liberty all have significant elements of their units deployed to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, degrading support capabilities to the homeland.

3. The classified readiness rates of America’s military helicopters and their crews are vastly worse than anyone outside the military understands.

Is this it? I hope not because how are these units supporting global wartime missions? Also, when discussing military helicopters, it’s important to understand that with maintenance and “crew rest” requirements, however many helos you have, you really only have about 40 percent of them available for missions at any single point in time.

4. Hurricane Helene damaged most military helicopters in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and that fact is being kept secret.

This one seems improbable. Fort Campbell and Fort Liberty were not hit hard by Helene, and military aviation units have standard protocols to fly their aircraft out of the path of destructive weather.

5. The active-duty military assets are not needed, everything is just peachy-keen with the limited assets currently in use, and those limited assets are totally sufficient to do the job.

You’ve seen the news. So have I. This one seems absurd.

6. The conditions on the ground, the availability of aviation support units, and/or the availability of aviation fuel make it impossible to establish forward bases for the helicopters to operate from.

Again, this one seems hard to believe. Helicopter units have organic support capabilities, and the bases I mentioned have millions of gallons of JP-8 (aviation fuel) in underground storage tanks, which can be moved via military fuel tankers to forward locations.

7. The Biden-Harris administration and/or the Democrat North Carolina governor are maliciously and deliberately denying or delaying the use of these assets for nefarious reasons only they know, such as, for example, making sure red counties in North Carolina cannot vote for Donald Trump.

The day after Helene made landfall, this seemed like just another conspiracy theory. Now, a week later, not so much. Are the Democrats this evil? You tell me. I have to believe that even at some subconscious level, they see this aspect of the disaster and like it. I would bet a paycheck it has been discussed at the HQ of the Harris-Walz campaign. Do you doubt it?

I’m pretty sure there are no other possible explanations for what we see right now. My X followers think the answer is likely a combination of Nos. 1, 2, and 7. I agree with them. Don’t let any Democrat voter tell you Biden and Harris have responded to Helene appropriately because the Katrina response tells an entirely different story.

Why are they acting with such disregard for average Americans? Is it negligence? Is it our global commitments to endless wars? Or is it something far more sinister? 

You decide on Nov. 5.

You can follow Cynical Publius on X at @CynicalPublius.