The population of the city of New Orleans is around 380,000. If you include the surrounding area it's about 1.2 million.
The population of western north Carolina is 1.15 million if you include the surrounded impacted area of eastern TN (2.4 million), north west GA(750k), south west VA and areas of WVa.
The terrain is more difficult, the supply lines needed for relief are longer and the ability to deliver those supplies are more time-consuming.
The Katrina federal response was considered a bad response, and Bush and the gov at the time sent in over 51,000 national guard.
Biden has said he has done all he can do, and he cant help anymore.
Gov Cooper sent 500 national guard so far for this event.
Any way you slice it, this response is on an order of magnitude worse than Katrina.