the original post made me think of one thing.

there is a common theme that has happened across a variety of emergency situations lately. People in the disaster zone are told "not to worry" and that "things are not serious".

When the first airplane hot the World Trade Center on 9/11, people in the second tower began evacuating too. But they soon received instructions over the building intercom to remain calm and go back to their offices. I know someone who refused to obey those instructions ... which is why they lived.

During the problems at the nuclear powerplant in Japan after the tsunami, the news updates to the local public were wrong and/or deliberately manipulated to reduce the level of public concern. Actual radiation leaks were far higher than anyone was being told.

And the Concordia cruise boat is also an example where people were told to calm down and not to evacuate immediately after the ship hit rocks.

We live in an information age.
Ironically, all too often this information is being manipulated during real disasters to minimize the "public impact" of major problems, and to reduce the perception that authorities have no idea of the real situation.

Pete2