God, it seems like an eternity since we all watched New Orleans die while Nero fiddled.

I'm sure a lot of people don't remember this: ten days before Katrina, record flooding hit parts of Switzerland, southern Germany, Austria, and Romania. Although the later news of Katrina pushed this story out of the American headlines, hundreds of people in Central Europe died in the floods.

Does anybody remember this?

Although the destruction in Europe was nothing compared to Katrina, it was nevertheless significant. Entire towns were destroyed, and many others were cut off from the outside world due to washed-out roads, bridges, and railways.

The Swiss town of Engelberg, as just one example, was completely cut off from the world when the only road down the mountain was washed away. Within 24 hours of the flooding, military and private helicopters were deployed to the town from Lucerne, which is 30 miles away. The 5,000 residents and 3,000 or so tourists were airlifted to Lucerne (which was itself under about 10 feet of water). The only people allowed to stay behind were those engaged in cleanup operations.

This story was repeated many times across Central Europe. The rescue operations were swift, effective, and thorough. They included a combination of firemen, police, military, NGOs, and private citizens spontaneously doing whatever they could.

A week after Katrina, I went to Europe for a few weeks on a trip I'd been planning for months. I went to Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. I rented a car and drove the whole way, taking the back roads through the countryside. I saw firsthand the devastation of the flooding, taking detours where necessary due to washed-out roads. However, the reconstruction was already well under way; less than three weeks after the floods, the road up that steep mountain to Engelberg had been rebuilt and reopened, Lucerne and Basel had been cleaned out, and the roads in southern Germany were already rebuilt.

Across the afffected areas, I met many wonderful, hospitable people. During conversation, they'd inevitably ask the same questions: "What the hell has happened to your country? What the hell happened to New Orleans? Why did your government let those people die?" They weren't being accusatory; they were genuinely shocked, appalled, and completely bumfuzzled that the wealthiest country in the history of the world was incapable of evacuating a few thousand people who had been left to die in their own filth in the Convention Center.

Looking at the difference in the European and American responses to disaster, I really couldn't come up with an adequate answer.

One guy in Germany asked, "Is this what Bush means by 'small government'?" He wasn't being snarky; he legitimately didn't understand why "small government" is considered desirable by conservatives in this country.

I could only answer "Yes, I think it is."

--Socialist With A Gold Card