Isn't it remarkable that a poor, politically isolated island nation could take a direct hit from a CAT 5 and not lose a single life?
How did they do that? The way we should have... by government-coordinated organizing in advance at the grass roots community level.
Read Marjorie Cohn's Sept 3 piece on it, "The Two Americas", if you haven't seen it.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090305Y.shtml
And the Bush administration even rejected the Cuban offer of help after the fact. Some comparisons are two painful.