Last week’s barrage of disasters in Southeast Asia and Samoa have proven especially difficult for aid workers, who are striving to provide manpower, materials, and funds to a throng of struggling nations.

The host of disasters began September 26, when Typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines, causing widespread flooding and landslides. On September 29, underwater earthquakes sent a series of tsunamis crashing into Samoa and Tonga, followed the next day by a 7.6 earthquake in Sumatra, which killed more than 1,000 people. Aftershocks continued to rock the area, new tsunami alerts have terrorized Tonga, and two other typhoons—Melor and Parma—have wreaked lesser but still substantial havoc from the Philippines to Japan.

Added to the sheer need for aid, there are access issues. American Samoa, while receiving the full benefit of disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is 4,500 miles from the West Coast and 2,300 miles from Hawaii, according to a Washington Post article.

“This will not be a short-term response based on reports of damage,” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said in a press briefing on October 1. “Our focus is on life safety, life sustainment and getting resources in there to support the governor and his team.”

While miles separate Samoa from its disaster resources, in Indonesia much shorter but equally frustratingly gaps left by crumbled roads and broken bridges kept aid away—including much-needed earth moving equipment that could have freed survivors. As of Tuesday, human rescuers were sent home and heavy machines were limited to knocking down unstable buildings and extracting bodies from the rubble, according to an article in the New York Times.

The double whammy of distance coupled with a barrage of disasters has made responding to countries in need more difficult than ever.

“It's very hard to make decisions and commitments about your level of response without really knowing the level of the need,” Chris Webster of World Vision told AlertNet.

“When you've got multiple disasters and unclear information it's very difficult. We would love to over-respond rather than under-respond but we have finite resources so that information is vital.”