The federal government had days – years, really – to prepare for Hurricane Katrina. Even so, the response has been deficient.

In the nearly four years since Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security was formed and given the task to prevent the next attack and prepare for the next disaster. So far, it’s been either lucky or good at preventing an attack. But its tardy reactions to the aftermath of Katrina in the Mississippi Delta give credence to the critics who have complained that the DHS is just a new layer of bureaucracy built upon a host of poorly connected sub-agencies.

The situation in New Orleans has passed the breaking point. Panicked and frustrated civilians have fired shots at military helicopters and police. Near-riots have broken out as crowds have rushed evacuation buses. And deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have left the National Guard in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama unable to muster the forces necessary to restore order and preserve life. There was no plan to deal with refugees, who are being dropped off in strange cities with little support, nowhere to go and no idea when they’ll be able to go home. Even now, it’s an ad hoc operation to store the homeless in shelters around the country. Nobody seems to be in charge.

New Orleans’ vulnerability is no secret. The city, as almost everyone is surely aware by now, sits below sea level, protected by a series of levees, canals and pumps. Katrina battered those defenses and left them broken.

The notice that the storm was threatening the Gulf Coast should have given authorities at least some time to prepare, but it appears little was done in advance. The major difference between a hurricane and a terror attack with a weapon of mass destruction is warning. We knew the hurricane was coming; a dirty bomb or biological attack would be a surprise.

Communications networks have been destroyed, and thousands of people – those too poor or too shortsighted to evacuate – have been largely abandoned for days. Why should we believe federal authorities would have reacted better to a large-scale attack?

This shouldn’t be read as an indictment of the men and women who are putting themselves in jeopardy to help others. Footage of Coast Guard helicopter crews, police, firefighters, doctors and others risking life and limb to save strangers restores our faith in humanity, that has been damaged by the callousness of the crooks and scoundrels who are trying to profit from the misfortune delivered on Katrina’s winds and rain.

After Sept. 11, the U.S. shouldn’t have needed another wake-up call. It’s apparent that a lot more has been said about preparedness than has actually been done. If this is the best we can do, God help us if our enemies ever manage to hit us again.