Fri Sep 2, 2005 05:21 PM ET
By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Images of desperate people clamoring for food dropped from military helicopters, armed soldiers in the streets and bodies floating in fetid water are usually associated with the world's poorest countries.
But this time, the scenes of death and despair are coming from a major city in the world's richest economy.
The suffering of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has shaken even hardened development experts at the World Bank, who deal with extreme poverty and disaster daily.
"In many ways this is turned into a developing country," said Margaret Arnold, the World Bank's natural disaster expert, who has dealt with some of the world's biggest natural disasters, including the Asian tsunami.
"I am shocked that this is happening in the U.S."
Arnold said Americans must take a hard look at how events have unfolded in the past few days.
"When all of this has calmed down, a lot of U.S. cities will have to do some real soul-searching," she said.
Arnold, whose sister lost her home in the hurricane, said it was clear the city was unprepared to weather the storm, although officials had long warned such a disaster was inevitable.
She believes that even in some of the world's poorest nations, where disasters are commonplace, government officials would have moved more quickly to evacuate people.
"One thing we tell our client countries is to have clear institutional arrangements in place for having rapid response and effective coordination," Arnold said.
"This has been the first real test since FEMA (U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency) was put under Homeland Security and obviously it didn't work and I think they will want to reexamine how they respond to disasters."
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Katrina images echo developing world disasters
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