Miloch wrote in
news

This pretty much lays out the business case for the An-225 and it
serves as a stark reminder of why this singular aircraft's abilities
are still highly valued. But one has to wonder about the U.S.
military's role in all this. Were there really no C-17s and C-5s
available to help out here? Were they really tasked on more important
missions than one as critical as this?



Indeed.

When the 2004 Tsunami hit Indonesia the US navy
mounted a huge response, with a whole fleet of ships
and C 5's and C 17's bringing in trucklods of supplies
and relief workers. Not to mention the hospital ship
Mercy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operat...ied_Assistance

By contrast when Puerto Rico was hit last year
and Hawaii just this year there was nothing like
that response.