Let’s just say it is a victory lap not worth running.

Federal officials and liberal-leaning newspaper columnists were celebrating Tuesday that the federal government has regained its capacity to respond to national disasters.

This, they say, was proven by the response to Hurricane Irene, which drifted up the East Coast over the weekend, at one point threatening 65 million people.

The response was good, but comparisons to the handling of Katrina under the administration of George W. Bush are simply not worth making.

For those with short memories, or Democrats desperate for good news, Irene bore only the faintest resemblance to her older sister, Katrina.

They both arrived in late August, and they were both wet and windy. The comparisons stop there.

Katrina, which became the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, was a category three hurricane when it hit southeast Louisiana.

Irene was a category one hurricane when it made landfall in New Jersey and was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm several hours later when it reached Cony Island in New York.

A category one hurricane has winds of 74 to 95 mph. A tropical storm, which most of the East Coast experienced, features winds between 39 and 74 mph.

A category three hurricane like Katrina, meanwhile, clocks wind speeds between 111 and 139 mph.

The difference is considerable, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

Category one storms can topple un-anchored mobile homes and uproot trees. Shingles will be blown off, rain and storm surge may cause flooding, and people may loose power for several days, all things we saw in Irene.

Category three and higher is considered a “major hurricane” and it’s called that for a reason. Not just shingles disappear, but entire rooftops.

Buildings will collapse, mobile homes tumble and flying debris will damage structures and injure people.

Katrina also hit a low-lying city protected by an inadequate levee system, the result of underfunding and poor administration by federal officials, including the Army Corps of Engineers.

It was a predictable disaster, and the predicted disaster finally arrived.

About 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded for weeks, and all along the Mississippi beachfront buildings, boats, cars, houses and casinos were floating freely and ramming into one another.

Mismanagement and a breakdown of leadership were evident on the local, state and federal level, as was widespread looting and civil strife.

Buses that could have been used to evacuate people without cars were never pressed into service. State and federal officials argued endlessly about jurisdiction. Federal officials, including the president, sat idle for far too long as people suffered in attics and on sweltering rooftops in the August heat.

One evacuation center, the Louisiana Superdome, was stocked to handle 800 people in an emergency, but 30,000 hungry, thirsty, angry people arrived.

Nearly 2,000 people died and more than one million were left permanently homeless or temporarily forced from their homes.

Today’s FEMA may be much improved. But myriad threats we face are great, from hurricanes to tornadoes and dirty bombs.

We will know a real national disaster when it arrives, and Irene wasn’t it. We should hold the applause for FEMA until then.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.