The usual image is of Western nations swooping in with a whirlybird and saving their expats from a banana republic disaster. But last week, Infosys airlifted its employees from Houston in advance of the hurricane (thanks, Sumita):

With Hurricane Rita hurtling towards the Texas coast, Indian IT major Infosys has evacuated over 86 people including employees and their families from Houston on a chartered flight… Infosys officials at the company’s headquarters in Bangalore said that the decision to charter a plane for the evacuation of employees and their families was made after reports that roads from Houston were blocked as scores of people attempted to flee. [Link]

In a similar vein, for Texans fleeing Rita, that friendly voice on the telephone may be desi (via SAJA):

A call centre in Gujarat has been fielding scores of distress calls from Texas residents about Hurricane Rita, the unit’s director said on Sunday. The call centre located in Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar, started fielding around 20 calls an hour…

“I received a frantic call from Robert Hurst, a senior judge in Texas on Friday night,” Jim Iyoob, the centre’s director in Gujarat and a resident of Texas. “He requested me to set up a helpline at the Business Process Outsourcing centre to help evacuees in Texas find a temporary shelter from the hurricane… All calls from our Texas office are being diverted to India,” says Iyoob who is helping anxious callers and updating them on the situation by monitoring various Web sites and maps. [Link]

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p>And, of course, India and Sri Lanka offered aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

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