At our core, we are all savages.
Don't be surprised when society falls apart and we respond like our nature would entail.
Ala Lord of the Flies
Kobe, Japan experienced 3,000 dead in one earthquake alone and had tens of thousands in refugee camps for five years if not more, and there were only a few extremely isolated cases of looting dealt with harshly by the Japanese police; people had an attitude of right vs. wrong, and social 'shame' were they to do wrong. No such value system is in place in large segments of the New Orleans permanent underclass...and we (should have) known that even before the disaster, just driving through parts of the town and observing general life.