You don't have to compare different hurricanes because the Mississippi Gulf Coast suffered far worse than New Orleans in Katrina but they weren't in the news because everyone in Mississippi pulled together - both black and white - and took care of each other. No sitting around moaning about the Federal government for the cameras, they just took care of things.
I saw this first hand back in the 1970s when I was a Red Cross Disaster Action Team volunteer. I worked a major flood in New Orleans and several natural disasters in Mississippi, including two floods in Jackson, Mississippi. Night and day difference between how the people reacted.
In New Orleans nearly all the volunteers were from out of town. We had maybe two or three local volunteers, that was it.
We were swamped with volunteers in Jackson and had to start turning them away. Jackson was the regional headquarters for the Red Cross and the regional director, who was from Philly and had just recently come to Jackson, said that the first time he had ever had to turn away volunteers. There were "gangs" of volunteers going around doing whatever they could find to do all over the city. There was no "black and white," race wasn't on anyone's mind.