Honestly, I think it has more to do with the socio-economic strata than with anything else. Sad, but true. When you've depended your whole life on someone else's help, you naturally expect it when a disaster happens.
I'm trying to sound as PC as possible here. If you've depended on the gov't for, literally, everything, then, when everything is gone, you scream for the gov't to help you out. Whereas when you've lived your whole life, making due, fixing things yourself, and are generally self-reliant (within reason, of course), then, you see the crisis for what it is; a temporary setback from the norm. So, instead of screaming for others to help you, the individual, you mobilize OTHER individuals, and do the helping yourself. Why, because thats what you'd expect from your neighbors.
We up here in new england see the same thing; blizzard of 78 was a prime example. Most of the state was crippled for a week. Pipes froze, no power, etc. Granted, I was young, but I remember cooking on a hibachi, in the basement, with the windows open for oxygen. I also recall melting snow in a LOT of pots. No one came & "rescued" us, nor did any gov't come & bring us food. We went back & forth regularly to neighbors houses to eat, having quite a few folks at different places each night. IIRC, it was a rather pleasant week. Of course, we had no school that week either... <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />