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I was amazed at how people could act like such beast. I never thought people could behave in such a way!

My wife and I lived in an apartment (1st flr of 3 story) next to the corner of Roscoe and Reseda, in Northridge. That morning, I only saw one guy go in and walk away with 2 cases of beer from the 7-Eleven. Hundreds of people were civil, allowing the employees to go in and get what the customer wanted (no one was allowed to go in the store). It was actually nice that the store was conducting any business considering no power.

I am sorry the first post I was referring to the Rodney King riots about people acting so terrible.

The point I was speaking of the difference in the handling of the Northridge quake vs. the riots.

I was in my business at Chatsworth and Balboa in the same shopping center as the Ralphs that was red tagged!

The area you were in was pretty hard hit. That quake made Slymar seems like child's play. And the second one that hit that was side to side was just as strong as the first.

Are you still in Earthquake country? I headed up north in 2000! Glad I did too!

Ms. Casey's Daughter!

The first person I had the misfortune of seeing was a kid that was a druggie and he offered to steal me a pair of shoes! I ran out without shoes and a nail had gone in my foot. I told him "NO"!

Your Northridge experience is the normal case for disaster scenarios. The disaster scenarios in movies are almost 180 degrees out of phase. A study came out about 6 or so months ago (and I wish I had the link) that went over how people actually react in disaster scenarios. Typically:

Looting is rare
People do not run away from the causality area. Instead they move towards it. There is no mass panic unless the danger is imminent (i.e. 9/11 where people ran away from the falling WTC towers and then walked back to help).
Even if family members are killed by a disaster, people do not become apathetic. They are still able to function normally (i.e. they don't curl up into a ball).
Civil unrest rarely occurs. People will look to those in authority to take over (police, firemen, etc). People will follow the orders of those who are in authority. Mutinies do not occur.

These items do not necessarily mean that responses to disasters are effective or helpful. It takes a good organizer to do that. It just means that the disorder is New Orleans is very odd. This would not normally occur. There must be some reason why anarchy is taking over when people naturally tend to move towards order. My opinion is that the proportion of the criminals to average persons in New Orleans is significantly larger than what it was before the hurricane (not counting new criminals). I also think that the level of intelligence has dropped. Smarter people who were not disabled probably fled knowing the potential for destruction. Smarter people tend to want some sort of order (and to follow the laws).