That's what happened in my town in south Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. There was a mass exodus from there and they came in like locusts into Baton Rouge, emptying the grocery stores, clogging the roads with bumper to bumper traffic, increasing the traffic accidents 500% and then they emptied our gas stations.
They left the locals with absolutely nothing for weeks while we waited to be resupplied. Which is why I always keep up to a month's supply of food pantry items in case of this very kind of emergency. It isn't what's going on in your town you have to worry about; it's what's going on in a larger metro area that may trigger a mass exodus coming your way. The countryside and smaller towns in Haiti are now receiving their desperate hungry locusts devouring what meager resources they had.
Two weeks after the earthquake:
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Day 12:
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Still a dearth of accurate or any information available to survivors or others outside Haiti:
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It took three weeks after the earthquake before my cousin, who was visiting Haiti to donate her time as a music teacher, was finally able to get out a message to family and friends that she was fine. She is living in one of those tent cities somewhere around Port-au-Prince where resources are limited. She was lucky to only experience bruises and minor lacerations as she fled the music school where she was giving a concert with the kids. Since she has recovered from some heavy leg bruises and a concussion she has pitched in to help the local relief efforts.
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