When disaster strikes, we all like to think that state and federal sources will be there to “catch” us and offer assistance.

That’s what frustrated so many Mississippi and Louisiana residents in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

When they needed help — after a catastrophic hurricane — the federal resources were slow to respond.

Eventually, they helped and in most cases federal and state aid is extremely helpful to those in great need.

Our system failed a year ago when flooding struck the small Wilkinson County town of Crosby.

Just miles away in Louisiana, the same storms caused extreme flooding too. In those communities, federal and state aid poured in.

But in Crosby residents were told the flooding there was not bad enough to warrant federal help. Essentially, the feds said, despite massive regional flooding, Crosby wasn’t bad enough off because it was small, meaning it didn’t hit some threshold for the amount of monetary damage required to receive funds.

The decision was bureaucracy at its best.

Clearly the federal guidelines need to be reworked to allow small pockets of damage — like that seen in Crosby last year — that are near larger, more widespread damage to obtain the same federal funds.

What happened in Crosby should never happen again the next time floodwaters rise.

We urge our legislators to help revamp and revise the federal guidelines and prove again that in America the smallest group is still as important as the largest.