Here is a timeline of the tsunami in December:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4154791.stm - highlights:
day 2: aid starts to arrive and being distributed
day 2: tourists start to arrive in their home countries
day 5: aid is arriving in the worst-hit areas
Now the USA and Asia can not be compared when it comes to infrastructure or technology available. Also we are talking about very different climates, size of disaster area, and type of disaster (I think the water retrieved much quicker in the tsunami + many of the areas hit were "low tech" areas with fewer dangers to those who did the search and rescue).
But it clearly makes you wonder why this situation - inside the US borders - would take so long...