HONOLULU -- The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the United States is proving difficult for Americans to comprehend. Casualties currently number in the scores, but the body count is expected to swell in the days and weeks ahead -- when the survivors can stop merely trying to survive and can begin to focus on the dead. One computer model -- which has been right at predicting the impact of the storm thus far -- predicts the death toll could exceed 80,000 people.

Americans have been stunned by scenes of carnage and mayhem. The scale of the suffering is almost impossible to grasp. A major U.S. city, with a population of over 460,000, seems to have vanished beneath the water.

Pictures of anguish alternate with scenes of violence, and anarchy. Television reports have shown bodies floating down rivers or wrapped in blankets and abandoned on city streets. There was footage of looters running from stores with their hands full, police and military officials struggling to impose order and often failing. Survivors are homeless, hungry, hurt and bewildered. There is confusion on the ground; it is unclear who is in charge.