New Orleans knows all too well what happens when help comes too late. Three years and $24 billion later, more than 4,300 families still call FEMA trailers home.

Hurricane Katrina is a constant reminder of what government inaction can mean to the country. And as Hurricane Ike came ashore early Saturday, flashbacks of Katrina permeated the evening news and all of our memories. But so far, the Ike recovery efforts haven’t been as disastrous or chaotic as those in the aftermath of Katrina.

In the next few days, the images of hurricane-ravaged Galveston, Texas, will fade as the major news networks shift their focuses back to the presidential election. And although we might not see the destruction every day, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. So let’s not stop caring next week.

We saw how quickly Katrina faded from the country’s memory, but its aftermath was a daily reality for those living on the Gulf Coast. It will surely be the same for those in the wake of Ike.

Donate to the Red Cross. Look to local charities. See if your student organization or hallmates can collect money for those affected by the storms. Find some way to help.

Prove to our generation’s critics that we do, in fact, care for people other than ourselves. We saw last night what the remnants of Ike can do to our small town.

So let’s help those who really felt the brunt of the storm before it’s too late.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.