Regardless of how masterful the response to a natural disaster may be, these efforts are never considered successful. Left in their wake is a death toll, and it will always seems like we could have done more to lower that number. Comparing the responses to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to the recent earthquake in Haiti confirms this criticism of disaster management efforts.

Though the government’s response to Katrina was characterized as a massive failure, the death toll in New Orleans was estimated, according to Louisiana health department figures, at approximately 1,500 people. The death toll from the earthquake in Haiti is 150,000 people and rising.

Haiti’s location and limited governmental infrastructure make aid and assistance more difficult to receive. In the first post-Katrina days in New Orleans, though resources were scarce, the injured could be transported to other cities for medical care. The injured in Haiti, however, must wait for doctors to come to them.

Louisiana’s economy was in comparatively bad shape compared to others in the United States, but Haiti was much less prepared for a natural disaster.

Before moving to North Carolina to attend school, I called Baton Rouge, Louisiana home. Katrina struck during my sophomore year of high school.

School was cancelled and I contributed to relief efforts by volunteering at a triage center, which was set up on the basketball courts at Louisiana State University.

My assistance was welcomed and trust was immediately extended to me. I spent my time running prescriptions for heavy painkillers across campus to “pharmacies” set up under tents, and then bringing the pills to the doctors who had requested them. No one knew my name, nor did they ask. Had I not delivered my charges, there would have been no repercussions.

When natural disasters of such magnitude strike, there is no time for doubt or mistrust.

Louisiana officials didn’t perform as well as they could have, but because hurricanes give advance warning, a mandatory evacuation was ordered. One million people did leave the city – an immense task for a city surrounded on three sides by water.

Aid is making its way to Haiti and newspapers and television correspondents are telling us that supplies–even shoes, are now making it to the people.

“Well thank God someone finally gave them shoes,” said junior political science major Patchouli Oerther. “It’s frustrating that it takes a natural disaster for people to realize that Haiti could already have used help.”

In both of these cases, those individuals who suffer most are the impoverished. Haiti has long been a country in need.

While it may be imperialistic to nominate ourselves saviors of the developing world, to not extend that helping hand could undermine Haiti’s own upward mobility. We must to be aware of our methods and sensitive to the self- articulated needs of a people, rather than impose our pre-conceived notions of what those needs are onto others.