Please remember that like there is a spectrum of folks who are prepared or unprepared, there are a lot of folks who are also rendered vulnerable by a disaster, to different degrees. The woman screaming in the street for assistance might require dialysis or daily meds, or she will die. The fact that no one has been in their neighborhood for 3 days is a very big thing in a scenario like that. We don't know from watching CNN. We've already established the physical impossibility of being prepared to our standards of preparedness in a 500 ft NYC apartment - now try that while on public assistance, or a limited retirement income. Try it with a physical disability, or mental illness. I'm hearing from friends who have deployed to H. Sandy, its pretty much like every other large scale disaster. Being prepared before hand can help a lot, as long as you avoid the path of the tornado - not everybody can do that, and I think its cruel to assume it when you look at people on the news. With all our generators and water caches, it doesn't do you a whit of good if your home is destroyed and takes it all away.

The vast majority of people are like the guy bailing out his basement and salvaging what he can, starting over. The next largest category are folks who are thanking Jehovah for their electricity back. But we're also seeing a lot of folks who can't cope with cold, lack of food, lack of meds, and lack of human comfort - those folks are entering Red Cross shelters. That ultimately is who we shelter at the RC, not so much the folks with other resources and options. The images of angry wahoos fighting for the gas pump are an amazingly small, small fraction of what's going on, but it makes news. I think its a mistake to allow the images of the wahoos to color your perceptions about who is really asking for help here. There but for the grace of allah goes the rest of us, safe and comfortable many miles away.

From the safety of our perches, lets give all of them their allotment of dignity and respect for the day.