I've read of this disaster and I agree that not all is roses in the West - nor has it been. My point can be most easily understood by standing on any street in many third world nations when a que develops or scarce commodities are at stake. The behavior of the mob almost universally rules. Public behavior in many developing nations would be considered riot in the West.
A few years ago, either TLC, Discovery or A&E, was showing a program about a ferry that sank. I believe it was in Indonesia. It wasn't on the scale of this disaster, but a large loss of life all he same. The story focused primarily on a British couple. The handful of survivors were mainly Westerners. It seems as though most of the locals couldn't swim.
The gal is credited with keeping one guy alive, she kept talking to him , convincing him he could stay afloat.
They were afloat for several days. She described how she had to swin away from people, they wanted to cling to her. She knew that they would drag her down, as she'd seen it happen to others.
To say nothing of New Orleans.