US: It was voluntary organisations not emergency agencies that showed how rescue efforts should be run, writes Denis Staunton in New Orleans
Flying into New Orleans, you see a multitude of little patches of bright blue, as if every other house in the city had suddenly acquired a swimming pool.
In fact, these are temporary roofs provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to protect damaged houses until permanent repairs are possible.
Fema has brought thousands of smart new trailers into New Orleans to house some of those who cannot return home, and other agencies are at work restoring power, fixing the transport system and fortifying the levees that protect the city.
The tragedy of New Orleans is unique in modern times, but as a major city in the world's richest country, the resources available for relief are also unparalleled.
Yet Hurricane Katrina had much in common with the two other recent great natural disasters - the tsunami in southeast Asia and the massive earthquake in Pakistan - particularly in terms of the social position of the victims and the pattern of the relief effort.
All three disasters claimed as their victims the poorest, oldest and weakest; all three saw an official response that depended greatly on non-governmental organisations and outside help; and each relief effort was hampered by a lack of co-ordination between agencies.
The scale of the tsunami was staggering, killing almost 230,000 people - about half of them on Sumatra - and leaving up to 50,000 unaccounted for. Many victims were swept out to sea and may never be recovered.
But the recovery has been remarkable too and Oxfam reported just before Christmas that more than half the people affected by the tsunami are now back at work. Most of the fishing boats destroyed have been replaced and much of the industry in the hardest hit regions is almost back to normal. The agency estimates that by 2007, 1.4 million people will have been lifted out of the poverty thrust upon them by the disaster.
Katrina killed 1,100 people in New Orleans and along the Gulf coast and drove a million from their homes. Almost the entire population left the city and four months later, only 20 per cent have returned.
The Port of New Orleans is back in business and the tourism infrastructure is coming back, but the city has yet to produce a plan for the return of most of its inhabitants, many of whom have lost everything they owned.
The earthquake that tore through Pakistan's North West Frontier province and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on October 8th killed more than 73,000 people and injured 128,000. It left 3½ million people homeless across the region and wrecked much of the public service infrastructure.
Pakistan's government is working with international agencies to provide suitable emergency housing for the homeless as they face into a harsh winter, including insulated tents. Millions still need food aid, but donor nations have been slow to release more than $6 billion they have promised in aid, and a lack of media attention to the disaster has meant a poor response to charity appeals for the earthquake victims.
Most of those who died in New Orleans were old, poor or sick and many were all three. Those who suffered most were lowincome households who could not afford to evacuate, did not own a car and were dependent on a government that failed them.
In the much poorer regions hit by the tsunami and the earthquake, children, the elderly and the sick were even more vulnerable, and in Pakistan many could yet die of exposure or disease during the winter.
In the aftermath of all three disasters, government agencies were unable to deal with the crisis alone and embraced the help of voluntary organisations, many of which had more useful experience than the officials. Military assistance was crucial, both in rescuing survivors and in providing an emergency infrastructure to facilitate evacuations and the distribution of aid.
With so many responders, however, proper co-ordination became a problem, particularly after the tsunami and Katrina. With no integrated system to share information, agencies and organisations bickered, duplicated roles, wasted time and got in each other's way. In New Orleans, some of the most effective responders ignored government requests to leave the rescue to the professionals and set out in fishing boats to help terrified people down off roofs in the lower Ninth Ward.
In Pakistan, 90 per cent of the half a million tents provided for earthquake victims were too flimsy for the winter and had to be "winterised" with millions of blankets.
In the meantime, many survivors recycled debris from their destroyed homes to create small, insulated dwellings that can withstand the winter cold.
Disasters such as those that struck this year cannot be prevented, but national governments, international agencies and voluntary organisations may be able to limit suffering in the future by improving co-ordination, helping the weakest first, and creating more adaptable emergency systems that can incorporate inventive responses to unexpected challenges.