Any natural calamity evokes a wave of sympathy for the victims. The loss suffered could apparently seem to be similar but the intensity and the impact could be vastly different. The familiar symptoms like loss of lives, homes, belongings, sources of livelihood and access to medical attention present great challenges for relief workers. The psychological impact of the unfortunate incident is more intangible.

The role of relief workers or disaster management professionals is onerous. They shoulder the burden of expectation of battered souls. They should provide appropriate and timely relief. The method of delivery of relief varies with the unique circumstances. In this context, this article analyzes the relief efforts undertaken during the two major calamities, which shook the world recently- the

giant tsunami of December 2004 and Hurricane Katrina of September 2005. Both are regular natural phenomena but this time round they struck with such unprecedented intensity that the entire world was left gaping. The tsunami hit largely under-developed pockets of the world like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and southern India. International aid flowed in freely as these nations called out for help. Men and material were mobilized on an emergency mode so as to bring

succour to thousands of victims. While these nationswere found wanting in systems, which could respond smoothly to calamities, the sheer sense of fortitude of the victims complemented the humanistic approach of the relief workers. The giant hurricane Katrina and its successor Rita hit the Louisiana and Texas coast of the USA. The loss has been estimated to run into thousands of billions of dollars. The world’s

richest country stood exposed about its ugly underbelly of skewed development and misplaced priorities. Its unsafe choices with the environment have resulted in compounding the woes of the people in these areas. They remain the marginalized and faceless section of American society for whom the government would not go the extra mile so as to bring in quick relief. The scenes of people huddled in the cold amongst surging waters holding on to anything they perceived precious or the long traffic-choked highways or the traumatized outbursts of the victims remained headline news for about a week. We do not know what became of them afterwards. Thus, they were conveniently forgotten partly because there has been a subtle agenda in the media not to project the US in bad light. Leaving aside such politics, there should be coordinated efforts to rehabilitate the hurricane victims. Most of them are poor in a wealthy nation which makes their plight pitiable. Let a chorus rise for them.