The world's most powerful nation - known around the world for coming to the aid of those in need - seemed powerless when it came to taking care of its own. By the time I arrived hundreds, possibly thousands, had already been killed by Hurricane Katrina. Now more were dying needlessly while waiting for relief supplies. And even more were starting to get restless and agitated having gone for days without food, water or toilet facilities.

The first thing that hit you was the stench. The stench of mounds of rotting garbage lying unattended; the stench of death, disease and despair. Thousands of residents, who forced to make the streets of New Orleans their home, were literally fighting for sleeping room on the pavement and parking lot outside the city's Convention Center. They were sleeping on looted mattresses, eating looted groceries, drinking looted alcohol.

And just like an African refugee camp, soldiers were everywhere. Only this time it wasn't the United Nations Blue Hats, as the soldiers are commonly referred to, but the US Army National Guard - part time civilians, part time soldiers, now full time peacekeepers.

They'd been sent in to quell the violence four days after locals started misbehaving having had little or no relief since the worst Hurricane in over a century reduced their city to one giant lake.

They were angry, frustrated, disappointed and feeling let down by their leaders. 48 year-old Stanley Rasmus said he'd been forced to walk miles to the Convention Center having been separated from his aging mother and three children in the Hurricane. Nearby, 82 year-old diabetic, Martha Jones, was lying in the baking sun, her four teenage grandchildren pleading with us to get her to a hospital.

We directed them to the nearby soldiers. Further along, 46 year-old Agnes Mathews was being pushed down the street by her 18 year-old neighbor in a shopping cart, her feet swollen after spending several days in six feet of water.

And on and on these heartbreaking scenes continued as thousands of homeless Americans tried to cope with their new homeless status. American refugees in the 21st Century - as unbelievable as, say, African astronauts walking on the moon.

Meanwhile, another scene not far away was becoming eerily familiar. The United States Coast Guard helicopters were busy making dramatic rescues of citizens from the roofs of waterlogged buildings across this waterlogged city. It reminded me of similar a scene five years ago in the Southern African nation of Mozambique when severe flooding left half the country submerged in water.

African villagers were forced to seek higher ground, and many were living in trees for days before elite pilots from the South African Air Force made daring rescues including one involving a woman who'd just given birth on a tree. I remember that woman.

Her name was Maria, and she named her daughter Rosita. I remember those pictures because I was there covering the story and never imagined I'd ever see anything like it again….until now, five years later. Only this time it was in the most unlikely of places….the civilized streets of America not the remote villages of Africa.

Back at the Convention Center, word had gone out that buses were arriving to take the refugees to a safe haven in neighboring Houston, Texas. And just like a scene out of the Old Testament, the masses rose as one and rushed for the buses, only this time it wasn't two by two…..it was thousands upon thousands. The old and the young, the sick and the lame, the crippled and the wheelchair bound- all fighting for the limited space and a ticket out of town.

It was 51 year-old Monroe Hoskins, a lawn-care technician who probably put it best when he said, "To be the richest country in the world, this is a disgrace. How can you take care of other countries when you cannot take care of home?"

In the end, the evacuees were finally bussed out of town, while thousands of others chose to stay put. New Orleans was their home; many of them were saying, and nothing was going to keep them away, not even a Hurricane with such a sweet sounding name.

The death toll hasn't been disclosed although there are hints it could be in the hundreds, possibly in the thousands. Again, drawing similar analogies to an African disaster - numbers that are simply mind-boggling and difficult to comprehend.

A massive clean-up process should be getting underway soon followed thereafter by the rebuilding of a shattered city. Rebuilding the psyche of shattered lives will no doubt take years, maybe even decades.