'One of the shocking things one discovers living in the States is the surprising prevalence of real poverty, which in places might easily be comparable to that experienced in more hard-up nations.'

I write this a few days after Hurricane Katrina, as the US reels from the realisation of the magnitude of the disaster, mourns its dead, and works desperately to get help to the survivors.

A friend of ours, a humanitarian aid worker, is on his way to New Orleans to help co-ordinate the relief operation. Previously he’s worked in places like Sri Lanka and Indonesia - so I am going to be interested in hearing how doing aid work in a Westernised, developed country compares to work in Eastern, third-world countries.

He’s also worked in places like the Balkans, and the former USSR, which are, nominally, 'developed countries' - although somehow it’s hard to think of them as being in the same category as the USA. But I find myself wondering if he is going to find a substantial difference between working in countries such as those, and working here. New Orleans and the surrounding area is home to a surprising amount of poverty. One of the shocking things one discovers living in the States is the surprising prevalence of real poverty, which in places might easily be comparable to that experienced in more hard-up nations.

It has been well reported that it was largely the impoverished who lacked the resources to flee Hurricane Katrina. What would your choice have been, in a similar situation, if you had no car and no money? Start walking and risk being caught in the elements, or stay put? It is doubtless largely among these people that my friend will find himself working.

You have probably heard the stories of unpleasant looting incidents - not just taking necessary groceries from abandoned stores, but the aggressive stealing of goods from other refugees - and the reports of violence involving guns, even against those involved in relief operations. These events may admit any number of different interpretations, but to me it argues for the existence of an impoverished underclass, who feel alienated from the normal civic structures of law, order, and welfare, and so have no hesitation in taking advantage of the fact that law and order is temporarily in abeyance.

I think this is borne out in the attitude of the media. There has been a much-publicised couple of photos of people struggling to cope in the aftermath of the flood. One shows a well kitted out, affluent looking white couple, wading shoulder-deep through water, are described as having 'found' the groceries they are carrying home, whereas in a similar photo of a much less affluent-looking black man, he is described as a 'looter'. With attitudes like this, is it any wonder that there is a sector of the population feels disenfranchised?

The people of Louisiana and Mississippi may not feel like it at the moment, but in many ways they have been more fortunate than the survivors of the Tsunami in the Pacific last year. Whatever people may be saying about the current US administration and its response to this disaster, the US does have an emergency response system comparatively better than that of many other countries. No doubt there are things which could have been done better, and lessons to be learnt from this whole situation, but the USA has a huge reserve of expertise to throw at situations like this - of which my friend is just one small cog.

I have a feeling that it is not only the emergency response protocols of the US that will need scrutinising after this is all over, but also the reasons behind the behaviour of some of its citizens - the fact that so many felt unable to evacuate after the warning was given, and the fact that the law and order deteriorated so rapidly in the wake of the disaster.

Maybe the behaviour of the economic underclass in New Orleans will act as a wake-up call to the US administration. Certainly it is hitting Bush where it hurts - as I write, his popularity is at an all-time low. Perhaps it takes a disaster on this scale to drive home just what the lives of some of the citizens of the richest state on earth are like - let us hope that, as they rebuild their lives, they are given the opportunity to rebuild them on better lines.

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