Despite all the technological advances and the luxury of a good weather service, Hurricane Katrina dealt a surprising blow to the Gulf regions of the United States. The situation on the ground mimicks those in Third World nations rather than that of a world superpower. The world watches and wonders how can such an incompetent management of a disaster be acceptable when there were ample advance warnings from weather services. The Hurricane was projected to hit New Orleans directly days before.

Perhaps the Bush administration will have to answer difficult questions when the situation on the ground stabilises and the Americans start evaluating what went wrong. It is not that Hurricanes are new to the US. They face several hurricanes a year. Their preparations should be rock solid.

Many are now wondering if the fact that New Orleans is a predominantly black neighbourhood with one of the highest rates of poverty by American standards, is the cause for such a laikadaisical attitude to this disaster.

Perhaps it is a humbling experience for US. Perhaps, there was negligence by the government administrators. Ultimately, much needs to be done to improve disaster response and relief efforts.

This reminds me of the haze situation in Malaysia where the recurrences of haze and the lack of co-ordinated efforts among countries have resulted in our inability to prevent hazardous haze from reaching our shores.