Flood- and wind-ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama face many years of rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of the 1977 Johnstown Flood here in Pennsylvania, leaders predicted a five-year rebuilding process, and that prediction proved true. Katrina's destruction could take a decade or longer to fix - that is to say, the damage that will be possible to fix.

But much worse than Katrina's damage toll will be the death toll left behind by the powerful storm plus the catastrophic toll on the human spirit of people who had resided in the stricken areas. Twenty-eight years after the Johnstown disaster, the remains of some victims remain unrecovered; some families victimized by Katrina similarly may never know what happened to relatives and friends.

The horrors of the tragedy will continue to spawn nightmares years into the future.

Just as in Johnstown in 1977, the good and bad sides of humanity are stepping forward in Katrina's wake. On the good side, thousands of people currently are waiting to learn how they can help the recovery process in places like New Orleans, La., and Biloxi, Miss., while others are engaged in around-the-clock rescue efforts on behalf of those still trapped on rooftops and elsewhere. At the same time, on the bad side, looters are scooping up everything they can, including guns and ammunition, drugs from pharmacies, inventories of jewelry stores and usable food from whatever sources are available.

A shoot-to-kill order was issued amid the Johnstown looting, and the situation was promptly brought under control. The massive scope of the Katrina tragedy will lessen the prospects for such an order to have a complete impact on the looting that continues. The best that can be hoped for now is that more police and National Guard manpower and the promise of eventual prosecution of those identified as looters will help bring this avoidable aspect of the tragedy under control.

Butler County residents who endured the flooding spawned by remnants of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan last September - tragic, although small in scope to what New Orleans still is enduring - can sympathize with the hardships Katrina victims have been facing and are destined to face indefinitely. People from this county will be among people from thoughout the country who will be offering assistance to the ravaged states. Local churches and other organizations will be mobilizing efforts to gather money and resources to help with the recovery and, specifically, to meet the immediate needs of victims who have lost everything but their lives and the clothes they are wearing.

"We will rebuild together" was the rallying theme amid the 1977 Johnstown Flood recovery, and such themes are likely to emerge from the rubble of the latest tragedy. Hundreds of people in Johnstown wore T-shirts proclaiming "Let's get the mud out." If only it were that easy for Katrina's victims, who were not only inundated by floodwaters, but experienced the power and horror of winds in excess of 100 mph.

Less than a year after Frances and Ivan, most of the Butler County damage is but a terrible memory. The pain of those weather events has mostly healed, except in some extreme cases. For some people of New Orleans and the other states affected by Katrina, the pain is destined to last for the rest of their lives.

Despite major floods in 1889 and 1936, Johnstown and its environs in 1977 clung to the mistaken belief that flood-control work after 1936 had rendered that community flood-free. No one anticipated how 11 inches of rain dumped on the Conemaugh Valley on the night of July 19-20, 1977, which caused nearby dams to fail, would render the city's flood-control channels incapable of containing the emergency.

Last September in Butler, the city learned the bitter lesson that its creek channels and stormwater system were no match for a storm even a fraction of the size of Johnstown's 28 years ago - which, in turn, was a fraction of Katrina's fury. Prior to Katrina, people in New Orleans were confident in the levees built to protect the city from the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain, but the failures of the levee system caused by Katrina had waters still rising in the city, despite the hurricane's departure.

It is a virtual certainty that Katrina will be the costliest hurricane in United States history - also, probably, the longest from which to recover. Future days and weeks will determine where the storm ranks in terms of number of deaths it caused. The numbers currently being reported would seem to be but a fraction of what ultimately will be determined - based on the number of people who reportedly stayed behind to ride out the storm.

Like all of America, Butler County has a role in helping to alleviate the suffering of those who survived Katrina. Presumably, the charitable instinct of people here already has kicked in as word is awaited about how best local people can put their generosity and resources to work.

Unlike last September, this county was spared serious damage in this instance. For that, people here should be grateful as well as relieved.

But with that comes the responsibility to help the less fortunate, many of whom have losses beyond comprehension. The question is not whether Butler County will be up to the task at hand, but by how much it will exceed reasonable expectations.