I guess I didn't get my point across. When I wrote that absorbing the refugees was RELATIVELY painless (as opposed to Darfur or the Balkans a few years ago), I think what I was trying to illustrate is that there is a certain level of destruction where the outlying areas can absorb the extra bodies that need shelter. If the disaster, or series of disasters, is of such a magnatude that there is just not enough infrastucture to absorb (shelter) the displaced, that is when civil order is going to start breaking down.

Having said that, waiting for "the gubmit to help me" is just a code phrase that translates to, "I'm a dead man".